In Honor of Jenny and Katie, I Have 2 Reviews for You - and Both Are 3.5's

We all know that Mitch Albom and Jeffrey Archer are world-renowned authors and storytellers.  Mitch struck it rich with Tuesdays with Morrie and, many years earlier, Jeffrey Archer with Kane and Abel.  But, like any author who has written a lot of books (31, in Archer's case), some are better than others.  Let me take each one's latest separately.

I have read all of Mitch's books:  Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Have a Little Faith, For One More Day, and The Time Keeper.  I've liked all of them, except The Time Keeper, a lot.  The Time Keeper was just okay.  This latest, The First Phone Call from Heaven, is definitely my favorite.  Here is a very short synopsis from Goodreads:   

The First Phone Call from Heaven tells the story of a small town on Lake Michigan that gets worldwide attention when its citizens start receiving phone calls from the afterlife. Is it the greatest miracle ever or a massive hoax? Sully Harding, a grief-stricken single father, is determined to find out.

Let me mention a couple of features of this book, without giving anything away, that stood out for me:

1.  There is quite a bit of history surrounding Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray (who?).  I love history.
2.  There is a scene a little over half way through in which one of the people receiving calls from heaven reacts in a very surprising way.  My mouth dropped.
3.  It's just flat-out well-written.  I connected to the characters immediately which, as many (some? few? none?) of you know, is crucial to me.

This is a book that, I think, most everybody would enjoy (a candidate for FFTNFR VI, perhaps?).  

There are Jeffrey Archer books that we all know and love - Kane and Able, The Prodigal Daughter, and A Prisoner of Birth, among many others.  But I think that his current series, The Clifton Chronicles, is among his best work.  I just read book 3, Best Kept Secret, which follows book 1, The Sins of the Father (review on 10/29/11 - a 3.0), and book 2, Only Time Will Tell (review 6/6/12 - a 3.5).  

Book 1 starts shortly before WWI and goes through the war.  Book 2 takes up the story shortly before WWII and ends after that war.  And book 3 starts right after book 2 ends.  The opening few pages of book 3 focus on the resolution of a lawsuit that began at the end of book 2.  Archer does a masterful job describing how the lawsuit gets resolved.  I was fascinated by all of it.  

Once again, I really care about the characters.  No series is going to last if you aren't anxious to find out what happens to them next.  It will, and I do.