End Game by Jeffrey Archer

After triple confirming the author, finally the post!! But one thing for sure if i can feel slightly good about the entire fiasco being, how much i loved both the authors. I've read Grisham's earlier works as well, which are made into Hollywood blockbusters. He is a master when it involves courtroom scenes, but somehow felt the rest of the storyline to be dragging. King of Torts nu oru book. Vandha pudhusula padika start panni almost 2 decades aaguthu. Still haven't finished it. Despite the bias and the confusion regarding the previous book, Archera nenachu padichirunthalum, my opinion remains the same. 

When i started "End game" i was actually skeptical, due to the wrong bias based on the previous book that i had misread as his, but within moments, was happily drawn into the storyline, despite it being the most recent one amongst the William Warwick series. Wasn't even aware that it was a series, but the way he had framed the characters and the familiarity with which they move around as a group, often quoting about their previous cases, made it quite obvious that this was either not the first book involving these characters or probably will not be the only book. For fans of Archer, the book presents a mixture setup of "Matter of honor" kind of a situation involving Russia with their target being England and not America as in the previous book, with a Kane and "Fourth estate" kind of cat and mouse chase between William and Faulkner, the twist and the danger involved in the plot reminiscent of "Honor amongst thieves" due to the embarrassment angle behind the plot. The story is about how William and his police team, who are in charge of security coverage during London Olympics, manage to thwart dual international attempts at sabotage. How they manage to safeguard the prestigious event's opening ceremony from Russian attacks with help from their own citizens and how they manage a catastrophically severe attempt to destroy the closing ceremony by Chinese, losing one of their own friends in the process, makes for an interesting read.  

The book is quite racy and the setting so familiar that even without the wrapper (ahem..irunthalum apdiye wrapper paathu padikarapola thaan) one can feel the familiar style of writing. When it comes to England and London based stories, Archer is still the king. The way he blends the locations into something that any reader can associate with as if they had been there is something Dan Brown can pick up and refine in his travel diary kind of exposing the locations in his Langdon books. The lovable family setup similar to "Kane and Abel" especially strong lady characters who have their moments in the sun and shine, the easy wit which makes them quickly lovable and followable, the knowledgeable villains who, despite despising the hero at a personal level, rates their love for art above their petty quarrels, the art angle especially involving famous painters and their creations and how the lead characters often fall in love due to their common interest in art, are all something that despite being repeats from his previous books, still read fresh. There are several moments during the Olympics event which Russian and Chinese try to break, creating havoc, many of which felt kiddish. And the ones that were supposed to be jaw dropping were literally over the top, like spiking the urine samples of Bolt and Farah. The reason for the same is mentioned at the end of the book where Archer lists down about 2 dozen incidents that actually happened during the London olympics with the list also including his fictional events as well. He leaves it to the readers imagination to filter out the fact from fiction and most of them are easily verifiable and identifiable. 

Overall the book was a happy read considering the prelude which itself took two posts (kashtakaalam!) i immediately went to other books in the series, after happily finding there are more of them. Currently reading the first book of the series "Nothing ventured". Will post about it once done.