Hidden in Plain Sight by Jeffrey Archer

 

Hidden in Plain Sight by Jeffrey Archer-295 pages

William Warwick has been promoted to Detective Sergeant, but his promotion means that he, along with the rest of his team, have been reassigned to the Drugs Squad. They are immediately tasked with apprehending Khalil Rashidi, a notorious drug dealer, who operates his extensive network out of South London.  Good thing Rashidi has the habit of visiting his mother every Friday because this is where William and his team pick up a clue that will help them nab him in the end!

This is the second installment in the William Warwick series.  I enjoy Jeffrey Archers writing.

Nothing Ventured by Jeffrey Archer

(Detective William Warwick #1)

320 pages / 9 hrs, 27 mins

"William Warwick has always wanted to be a detective, and decides, much to his father’s dismay, that rather than become a lawyer like his father, Sir Julian Warwick QC, and his sister Grace, he will join London’s Metropolitan Police Force.

"After graduating from university, William begins a career that will define his life: from his early months on the beat under the watchful eye of his first mentor, Constable Fred Yates, to his first high-stakes case as a fledgling detective in Scotland Yard’s arts and antiquities squad. Investigating the theft of a priceless Rembrandt painting from the Fitzmolean Museum, he meets Beth Rainsford, a research assistant at the gallery who he falls hopelessly in love with, even as Beth guards a secret of her own that she’s terrified will come to light.

"While William follows the trail of the missing masterpiece, he comes up against suave art collector Miles Faulkner and his brilliant lawyer, Booth Watson QC, who are willing to bend the law to breaking point to stay one step ahead of William. Meanwhile, Miles Faulkner’s wife, Christina, befriends William, but whose side is she really on?  --from the publisher

I love Archer's writing style, and the narrator is one of my favorites (George Blagden, who also narrated Clifton Chronicles). The plot and characters are a bit too high society for my interests, but I'll definitely try the next in the series. I give it four out of five stars.

The Old Success by Martha Grimes

 The Old Success by Martha Grimes-234 pages

When the body of a French woman washes up on an inlet off the Cornish coast, Brian Macalvie, divisional commander with the Devon-Cornwall police is called in. Who could have killed this beautiful tourist, the only visible footprints nearby belonging to the two little girls who found her?

While Macalvie stands in the Scilly Islands, inspector Richard Jury–twenty miles away on Land’s End―is at The Old Success pub, sharing a drink with the legendary former CID detective Tom Brownell, a man renowned for solving every case he undertook. Except one.

In the days following the mysterious slaying of the Parisian tourist, two other murders take place: first, a man is shot on a Northhamptonshire estate, then a holy duster turns up murdered at Exeter Cathedral in Devon. Macalvie, Jury and Bronwell set out to discover whether these three killings, though very different in execution, are connected. I have never read one of her books before, and to be honest I found it to be very muddled and confusing.  I did not care for it.

Nothing Ventured by Jeffrey Archer

Nothing Ventured by Jeffrey Archer-320 pages

I enjoyed the "Clifton Chronicles" by Jeffrey Archer so I was looking forward to the launch of his new series "William Warwick".  I was not disappointed.  This follows a young man who since the age of 8 had always wanted to be a detective.  He achieves his dream and is on the fast track to Scotland Yard.  There are several cases going on at once and through many twists and turns he seems to always come out on top.  I highly recommend.