Mightier Than the Sword by Jeffrey Archer

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Very good.

Clifton Chronicles:

Archer is a terrific story teller.

I’m finding the A.I. mode summaries on a Google search increasingly useful:

The Clifton and Barrington families through the late 1960s and early 1970s. The novel is known for its intricate plot, multiple character storylines, and trademark cliffhanger ending. 

The book explores several intersecting storylines for the main characters:

  • Harry Clifton As the newly elected president of English PEN, Harry embarks on a dangerous mission to free fellow author Anatoly Babakov from a Russian gulag in Siberia, a quest that puts his own life at risk.
  • Emma Clifton Now Chairman of Barrington Shipping, Emma must navigate the fallout from an IRA bombing on the family’s flagship, the MV Buckingham, while also fending off an old adversary, Lady Virginia Fenwick, who is determined to bring about her downfall.
  • Giles Barrington A Minister of the Crown with ambitions for higher office, Giles’s political career faces jeopardy after a diplomatic trip to Berlin ends in disaster. His long-standing rival, Major Alex Fisher, seizes the opportunity to run against him in the general election.
  • Sebastian Clifton Harry and Emma’s son is making a name for himself at Farthing’s Bank and proposes to his American girlfriend, Samantha. However, a deceitful colleague, Adrian Sloane, schemes to ruin Sebastian’s career and personal life. 

The narrative builds to a climax featuring two major court trials—a libel case in London and a politically charged show trial in Leningrad—which leave the fates of the characters hanging in the balance at the book’s conclusion. 

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Farewell Quito, Ecuador

On By Rick McIn food, travelLeave a comment

Over 3 weeks, I spent many enjoyable days in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. I’d be happy to go back anytime.

It’s a very inexpensive tourist destination.

My base was excellent Secret Garden Hostel. I enjoyed many a great meal on their rooftop restaurant.

The historic centre is terrific in the day — but my favourite moments were wandering at night.

I finally made it up to the top of a central hill to see the 41m-tall Virgin of Quito. Taller than Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.

This is still a developing nation. Most people don’t use seatbelts. Dogs roam free.

Certainly Ecuador has a proud culture. Citizens do not try to emulate American culture.

I’ve never been much of a fan of KFC. But in Asia last year — and in Ecuador, I’ve been a regular customer. It’s the only western fast food franchise I’ve seen. Burger King is here, somewhere.

A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst

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Wow. This is one intense survival story.

Maurice and Maralyn Bailey were a British married couple who, in 1973, survived for 118 days on a rubber raft in the Pacific Ocean before being rescued.

… At dawn on 4 March 1973, their yacht was struck by a (dying) whale and severely damaged.

After transferring some supplies to an inflated life raft and dinghy and salvaging some food, a compass, and other supplies, the Baileys watched as Auralyn disappeared beneath the waves.

To survive, they collected rainwater and when their meagre food supplies ran out, began eating sea creatures such as turtles, seabirds and fish caught by hand or with safety pins fashioned into hooks.

Their adventure was turned into the book 117 Days Adrift (1988).

The story was retold in Maurice and Maralyn (2024) by first time author Sophie Elmhirst. The book was published in the United States in 2025 as A Marriage at Sea.

Amazingly, they returned to sailing, purchasing a new yacht called Auralyn II. 

Maralyn Bailey died of cancer in 2002 at the age of 61. Maurice Bailey died in December 2018 at the age of 85.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.



Why Bikepacking?

On By Rick McIn cycling, travelLeave a comment

Ryan Van Duzer is my long distance cycling guru.

Here he sums up the reasons why it’s worth planning a cycling holiday.

For me, I find it very relaxing. Life is simple. It can be an inexpensive holiday, as well if you wild camp in a tent.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Stranger by Harlan Coben

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The Stranger (2015) is another excellent, but short, novel by the master of the intriguing plot.

A stranger shows up at a bar tells Adam Price a devastating secret about his wife, Corinne.

… But that is only the beginning of Adam’s problems.

Corinne explains that there is more to her deception than appears on the surface, and wants to meet Adam alone to discuss it. She never shows up for the meeting and seems to have disappeared.

More secrets are discovered to have been revealed or leveraged by The Stranger, threatening to not only ruin lives, but end them

The novel was made into a British television limited series of the same title that was released on Netflix in January 2020.

It looks like the TV show is very loosely based on the book.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Be Careful What You Wish For by Jeffrey Archer

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Be Careful What You Wish For opens with Harry Clifton and his wife Emma rushing to hospital to learn the fate of their son Sebastian, who has been involved in a fatal car accident.

But who died, Sebastian or his best friend Bruno?

That storyline is very interesting. But I found it to go downhill from there.

Clifton Chronicles

Be Careful What You Wish For follows the Barrington-Clifton family during the years 1957 to 1964, when Emma Barrington Clifton seeks to take control of her family’s shipping business and must deal with conspiracies and sabotage.

Don Pedro Martinez tries to get his own candidate to lead the company and Yorkshire banker Cedric Hardcastle joins the board.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

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I don’t typically like (overly-long) Fantasy novels. But this one worked for me.

Foundryside (2018) by Robert Jackson Bennett is a high-stakes fantasy heist novel set in the city of Tevanne, where industrialised magic—known as “scriving“—is used to convince inanimate objects to disobey the laws of physics. 

The Core Storyline:

  • The Heist: Sancia Grado, a highly skilled thief with the unique ability to “feel” how objects are scrived, is hired to steal a seemingly ordinary, heavily guarded box from a merchant house warehouse.
  • The Discovery: Upon opening the box, Sancia discovers it contains an intelligent, ancient artifact (named Clef) that holds the secrets of the “Hierophants”—an ancient civilization that once used this magic to reshape reality.
  • The Conflict: Powerful, ruthless merchant houses want this artifact to monopolize the technology and rewrite the world to their advantage. Sancia, now a target, must go on the run to protect the item.
  • The Alliance: Sancia teams up with an unlikely group, including a disgruntled soldier named Gregor Dandolo, to prevent this technology from falling into the wrong hands.
  • The Resolution: The plot unfolds as a series of action-packed heists and chases, forcing Sancia to learn how to manipulate the magic herself to survive and stop the merchant houses from unleashing a new, dangerous era of reality-warping technology. 

Ofelia Dandolo: Gregor’s mother, the fiercely formidable woman who runs the Dandolo Campo and plans on making sure it stays on or near the top.

  • Orso and Berenice: the master scriver of Gregor’s House and his “Fab” (think the “builder” to his “architect”), both driven by intellectual curiosity and a desire to further their craft.
  • Claudia and Giovanni: scrivers who failed out of the campo system and now do scriving work in the black market.

Foundryside is the first book in the Founders trilogy and focuses on themes of corporate greed, the ethics of AI, and the power of technology

Too Old for This by Samantha Downing

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You can’t help but cheer for 75-year-old Lottie, a likeable old murdering grandmother.

Too Old for This (20250 by Samantha Downing is a dark comedy.

Lottie Jones, a retired serial killer living a quiet life who is forced back into her old habits when an investigative journalist shows up asking questions about her past.

– AI


People magazine review – A Serial Killer’s Secret Is on the Line in Samantha Downing’s Thriller Too Old for This

I’m on the EQUATOR

On By Rick McIn food, travelLeave a comment

Ecuador was named after the Spanish word for “equator“.

Almost every tourist who makes it to Quito visits the (somewhat cheesy) Ciudad Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World City).

The grounds contain the Monument to the Equator, which highlights the exact location of the Equator.

The placement of the equatorial line was defined throughout a 1736 expedition called the French Geodesic Mission.  They were astonishing close — only incorrect by 240 metres (790 ft). 

Most interesting was a demonstration of the Coriolis force. I’d always heard stories about the “coriolis effect” ➙ water draining in different directions in the northern and southern hemispheres.

BUT I was shocked to see it with my own eyes with the draining water only about 2m on either side of the equator line.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

A great trick. I was fooled.

As you would intuit, the Coriolis force does not work on small bodies of water anywhere on earth.

The guide pours the water in a certain way to cause the direction of drain.

I enjoyed my 2nd chocolate tour over the past few months. A fascinating story.

You could certainly skip Ciudad Mitad del Mundo. But I’m glad I went. The parklike setting is well done.

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

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Beautiful Ugly is a 2025 psychological thriller novel by Alice Feeney.

The book follows Grady Green, a once-successful author who retreats to a remote Scottish island after his wife Abby’s disappearance, only to encounter unsettling events and a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Not normally a fan of anything horror,— or even creepy — this book was interesting enough to keep me going.

The twists and turns are not believable — but it’s still worth reading.