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63 About this deal
Scudder accepts the job and begins investigating in his usual methodical way, turning up one thing after another, asking one question after another, and in the process learning things about both Wendy and Vanderpoel that no parent might ever want to know.
Kudos Lord Archer for this powerful piece of work. Keep building and you will surely capture the hearts and minds of many more readers before too long. It is important to remember these overlapping doctrinal truths, and to compare Scripture with Scripture as we think about this passage in its meaning.Jake Reichsmann - probably Herod (this is not entirely clear but seems the best fit to me as a) he's Jewish and b) he heads a rival bank/country). This novel doesn't stand alone - you must read Only Time Will Tell first - and has no more than a couple of chapters of plot relevant to the bigger saga. Or perhaps 1.9 chapters, given that the single thread defining this novel is left incomplete. As a result, this short book is stuffed with exceptionally dull filler. The phrase, unexamined, has led some to foolishly charge the Almighty with a capricious nature. Some might even be led to think that a philosophy of determinism is evident in the Bible. Nothing could be further from the truth. God does not will suffering upon human beings. God is just and righteous in all of his ways. Determinism is a pagan philosophy. Such a view of God and His universe has nothing to do with the doctrine of predestination or the sovereignty of God. Well if the above doesn’t make it clear, he’s one of the good guys. I would even go so far as to say one of the REALLY good guys. Granted, his colorful history would suggest that Matt has a ding or two on his armor and some warts on his soul. Ah, but remember....deceptive appearances and the onion full of layers. Matt is someone who cares, truly and deeply, about right and wrong. He spends more time than most contemplating the nature of good and evil and trying his best to fit into the former while minimizing his contributions to the latter. Emma Barrington,the mother of Harry's child,goes to the US,looking for him.His friend Giles Barrington also fights in World War II.
Scudder follows the slim leads he has and over a few days of searching out and questioning people who knew her, he develops a sharp idea of the life of the deceased roommates. I didn't know much about Augustus and his daughter, so the plot was new to me. Especially the ending. [By the way, I am skimming now the history of them, and I see that Susan Howatch did really a great job rewriting it, in the world two thousand later.] Fans of intricate family sagas and/or soap operas would probably like 'The Clifton Chronicles' and I strongly recommend this book to them. The story contains a variety of interesting secondary characters, including: a prison warden; a literary agent; a book publisher; a butcher; a teacher; Emma's New York relatives; a Polish aristocrat; a private detective; German officers; and more. Scudder is an ex-cop who left the force for very personal reasons. He now works as an unlicensed P.I. Clients don't hire him in any traditional sense, but occasionally he does a favor for someone and they show their appreciation by giving him monetary gifts.The book has a sort of 'fairy tale' vibe since the 'good guys' - though they face much uncertainty and hardship - generally prevail. And the 'bad guys' - who tend to be stereotypes (brutal bully; unscrupulous lawyer; greedy businessmen; etc.) - usually get what they deserve. In addition, who would believe Harry, who has an upper-class British accent, is an American? Still, I like the story so I'm willing to suspend disbelief (a little). You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me” ( Exodus 20:5). So if this were a case of raging jealousy and Wendy, as Richie’s father said, had trapped him with sex, why was Richie bunking on the couch? Only days before Britain declares war on Germany, Harry Clifton, hoping to escape the consequences of long-buried family secrets, and forced to accept that his desire to marry Emma Barrington will never be fulfilled, has joined the Merchant Navy. I had spent most of my hour wandering through those rooms, sitting on chairs, leaning against walls, trying to rub up against the essence of the two people who had lived here. I looked at the bed Wendy had died on, a double box spring and mattress on a Hollywood frame. They had not yet stripped off the blood-soaked sheets, though there would be little point in doing so; the mattress was sdeeply soaked with her blood, and the whole bed would have to be scrapped. At one point I stood holding a clot of rusty blood in my hand, and my mind reeled with images of a priest offering Communion. I found the bathroom and gagged without bringing anything up.
If you're entering the world of Matthew Scudder, you better brace yourself for some dark and delicious detective work. I don't know why I keep wanting to use adjectives normally reserved for coffee blends to describe this book. I'm pretty sure evenly-roasted isn't a term intended for literary review, but this story (and Scudder himself) just hit every note I never knew I needed for a supremely satisfying read. Not too badly written. Paints the Corby family as complete media tarts, and Schapelle as as much a victim of their greed for money and fame as of the drug syndicate whose shipment she was carrying. But there's no real evidence in the book that Schapelle knew she was carrying drugs - just the assumption that because her family was involved in drugs, she would have known. There are a few loose ends left tantalisingly dangling, so I suspect this isn't the last we've heard on this. His writing is sparse and crisp (def. marked by clarity, conciseness, and briskness) with no needless words all of which I love in writing. Why say in 20 words what can be said effectively in 10? By the end of the book there's a question about the rightful heir to the Barrington title and fortune: Is it Hugo's legitimate son Giles; or Hugo's (presumably) illegitimate son Harry? This is the cliffhanger that ends the narrative.The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children."--William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act Three, Scene Five, Line One
The ending is by far one of the best, if not the best ending of any book I’ve ever read. That's saying a mouthfull, too. The police have closed the case and Hanniford accepts their obvious conclusion that Vanderpoel killed his daughter. But he wants to know why. Hanniford and Wendy had been estranged for several years and he knows nothing of her life during that period. He now knows that she was living in an expensive apartment with no visible means of support, which suggests the obvious to everyone involved. Still, no matter how sordid the details, Hanniford wants Matt to dig into Wendy's life so that he will know how she came to such a tragic end. All books are interlinked so you’ll meet characters from other books and find hints to future or past books. That said, many books can be read as standalone.There was only one problem. In a very real sense, my arrangement with Hanniford was more than a dodge around the detective licensing laws and the income tax. The money he gave me was a gift, just as the money I’d given Koehler and Pankow and the postal clerk had been. And in return I was doing him a favor, just as they had done me favors. I was not working for him. Scudder is the divorced father of two and a guy with serious drinking and rage issues. Trying to recover from a tragic incident that occurred while he was a police officer, Scudder feeds the guilt monster with booze, prostitutes and moments of rage (“Everybody has mean little places inside himself.”). Less of a boy scout than say Robert B. Parker’s Spenser, Scudder seems one step away from permanently stepping into the abyss. “Hello, darkness my old friend.” Even in modern times, high treason isn’t something to be taken lightly, but what if it could have saved millions of lives? What if, by assassinating Adolf Hitler, utter devastation on a global scale could be prevented? How different would things have been if the Führer had succumbed before he had Germany brainwashed into thinking war was the only way to regain national pride? These are the questions that are explored in Sins of the Fathers ( Skyhorse) by Herbert J. Stern and Alan A. Winter, the exciting sequel to Wolf. In Scudder's first case two fathers each lose a child, one a son, the other a daughter. Young Wendy Hanniford was a freelance escort. Her father, Cole, wants to know why his daughter was killed. Scudder bluntly tells Hanniford he may be opening doors he doesn't want opened, but Hanniford has to know. I wondered whether it was worse for men to do the wrong things for the right reason or the right things for the wrong reason. It wasn’t the first time I wondered, or the last.
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