Be Careful What You Wish For (Archer novel)

Be Careful What You Wish For

Author	Jeffrey Archer
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Clifton Chronicles (Book 4)
Published	13 March 2014
Publisher	Macmillan (UK) St. Martin's Press (US)
Media type	Print (Hardcover, Paperback), Audio, eBook
Pages	400 (Paperback), 387 (Hardcover)
ISBN	978-0-230-74825-5
OCLC	857879257
Preceded by	Best Kept Secret
Followed by	Mightier Than the Sword

Be Careful What You Wish For is the fourth novel in Jeffrey Archer's Clifton Chronicles. It was published on 13 March 2014.^[1][2]

Plot

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 shipping business and must deal with conspiracies and sabotage,^[1] opening 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. When she visits the morgue to identify the body, it turns out Sebastian survives the accident and the dead body is Bruno's. Police investigations and witness testimony revealed that there were three lorries surrounding the car and they were attempting to cause an accident by blocking all paths. Sebastian was the driver, not Bruno, a mistake by the police who assumed that the latter, the car owner was driving.

When Ross Buchanan is forced to resign as chairman of the Barrington Shipping Company, Emma Clifton wants to replace him. But Don Pedro Martinez intends to install his puppet, the egregious Major Alex Fisher,^[3] in order to destroy the Barrington family firm just as the company plans to build its new luxury liner, the MV Buckingham. Intending to create financial overruns and slowly bankrupt the company, Martinez also engaged the services of the IRA to sabotage the shipbuilding work at Harland and Wolff's in Belfast.

Then, without warning, Cedric Hardcastle, a bluff Yorkshireman who no one has come across before, takes his place on the board of Barringtons.^[1] This causes an upheaval that none of them could have anticipated, and will change the lives of every member of the Clifton and Barrington families. Hardcastle’s first decision is who to support to become the next chairman of the board: Emma or Major Fisher but eventually decided to abstain and let Buchanan cast the deciding vote.

Back in London, Harry and Emma’s adopted daughter wins a scholarship to the Slade Academy of Art where she falls in love with a fellow student, Clive Bingham, who asks her to marry him. Both families are delighted until Priscilla Bingham, Jessica’s future mother-in-law, has a visit from an old friend, Lady Virginia Fenwick, who drops her particular brand of poison into the wedding chalice. This, together with Luis Martinez's ransacking of her apartment and destroying much of her artwork proves too much for the young woman, resulting in her suicide. Harry regrets for not being fast enough of revealing the truth behind her parentage.

Feeling remorse over his inaction indirectly leading to her suicide and realizing that it was Martinez who attempted to prevent Sony International from signing the British financing deal with Farthings, Hardcastle decides to fight back by helping the family in beating Martinez in his own game. With help from other bankers, stockbrokers, Sebastian (now working at Farthings), and his own son Arnold, the family get tipped off that Martinez intends to sell his stake at Barringtons a week before the August shareholders meeting, selling off his entire artwork collection at Agnew's and following that, Fisher's letter of resignation from the board a few days later in hope to create panic among shareholders thus a financial crisis for the company.

It is revealed that Cedric is the patient next to Sebastian at the hospital during the young man's period of recovery from his injuries sustained during the accident. While recovering, his persuasion and his eagerness to learn eventually won Hardcastle over that he teaches him about finance and business. Sebastian was the one who advised him to acquire the 7.5 percent stake of the company in order to take his place on the company board. During his visit to Agnew's to acquire his sister's paintings, he strikes a relationship with Samantha Sullivan, the daughter of a U.S diplomat, who works there. A negligence in handling the artwork transaction has them being detained by the police briefly. Despite her dismissal as the result, it does not prevent him from continuing their relationship and eventually proposing marriage.

Over the weekend, while the Martinez family goes for holiday at Glenleven, Hardcastle sells off his stake at other stock exchanges in the U.S, Hong Kong and Australia, intending to get the best spot price upon the opening bell in London's stock exchange on Monday morning. With stockbrokers being instructed not to sell the shares to anyone from the Clifton / Barrington family, he has already lined up Clive's father, Robert Bingham, to acquire the available stake. Robert is too happy to oblige and is determined to even up his score since he has been denied a chance of knighthood due to the subterfuge by Fisher and Lady Fenwick. To ensure of Hardcastle's success of the plan, Buchanan keeps an eye on the Martinez's movement up north and went as far as pulling the strings in the train to prevent Don Pedro's eldest son, Diego from stopping the stock transaction at the opening bell.

The success results in Don Pedro's bankruptcy. His two sons are charged in court (Diego for attempting to bribe the stockbroker after the sale of shares had gone through, Luis for breaking and entering), later deported back to Argentina. Karl, the former Nazi officer and butler has been abducted by Colonel Scott-Hopkins' team while shopping at Harrods to be deported to Tel Aviv for trial as a war criminal. Major Fisher, having to send his resignation letter to Emma thinking he would replace Hardcastle on the board realized he has been duped unaware that Hardcastle sold off his share and thus no longer a member of the board. During the press conference of the AGM, Lady Fenwick, an uninvited person at the event, is stumped by a verbal knockout answer by Emma. She has vowed to sue Emma for defamation and slander, a setup for a key plot thread in the next book.

Furious with the misfortune that befells him, Don Pedro goes on an angry state, berating almost everyone including his sons. With one last attempt on revenge in mind, Martinez again engages the IRA to attempt a bombing of the MV Buckingham during its maiden voyage to New York. Unfortunately the IRA gets wind of his intention not to pay the remainder of the fee (he actually ran out of money) that when he tries to leave for the airport, the chauffeur has him in gun point, his fate unknown.

The book ends with a cliffhanger. While the main characters exchanged pleasantries and having their time on board of the ship, several IRA members in disguise begin to execute the plan of planting the bomb at the ship. At around 3 a.m, one of the members started arming the bomb to be detonated within 30 minutes. Although there is a bomb blast after that, whether part of the ship is blown or otherwise remains to be seen.

Sequel

There will be seven books in the Clifton Chronicles instead of the initial five as was earlier intended. This is due to the fact that Archer felt that he could not end the series without suddenly killing Harry Clifton, the protagonist of the series so he decided to extend the series. The next book, Mightier Than the Sword will be published on 24 February 2015^[4] and Archer has stated that Margaret Thatcher will make an appearance.^[5]

References