The Sins of the Father was published by Macmillan in 2012. Harry Clifton, having assumed the identity of a dead man to avoid the consequences of a suspected family connection to the Barringtons, finds himself imprisoned in America for a crime he didn’t commit. Emma Barrington, pregnant with Harry’s child, refuses to accept his disappearance and fights across continents to discover the truth and free him. The novel spans the war years, using the global conflict as backdrop for personal drama.
The Identity Theme
The novel’s central device — a man imprisoned under another’s identity — is quintessential Archer: identity, mistaken or assumed, drives many of his plots. The prison sequences draw on Archer’s own experience of incarceration (he served two years for perjury from 2001 to 2003), giving them a documentary texture absent from his earlier work.
Collecting The Sins of the Father
First edition (Macmillan, London, 2012): Boards with dust jacket.
Approximate market values:
- Fine in dust jacket: $15–$30
- Very good: $8–$15
Projected values (2026–2036): Modest appreciation. Part of the seven-volume Clifton Chronicles set.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the series have two protagonists? Archer alternates between Harry Clifton (the writer) and Emma Barrington (his wife) because the saga is fundamentally about two families — the working-class Cliftons and the patrician Barringtons — and the social forces that both unite and divide them across six decades of British history.
When is The Sins of the Father set? The novel picks up in 1939 where Only Time Will Tell ended and continues through the war years. Harry Clifton has assumed another man’s identity and is imprisoned in America.