As mentioned in previous posts, this being the 4th or 5th book in the William Warwick series, Archer hardly makes any effort to reintroduce the characters. The story begins as abrupt for those who follow the series or like a pilot episode of a fresh season for those entering new, with a new assignment being given to William Warwick and his motley bunch.
This time, they've a dual responsibility to unearth potential corruption in the royal protection unit at the same time, perform the protection duty as well for the most beloved royal scion possibly, ever - The Princess of Wales, Diana. With Ross Hogan assigned the task of protection duty for the princess, while rest of the crew are split into teams shadowing the existing cops at the royal household. how they go about uncovering the misdeeds and corruption in the existing team, overcoming initial resistance and then slowly gaining their trust, only to investigate further to unearth evidence against the cartel and eventually resulting in termination of the existing support team. The parallel arc being the most interesting one bordering on reality - the one involving the affairs of Diana, especially the one resulting in her eventual demise. She doesn't die in this book, but ends up being kidnapped by her boy friend, who happens to be Libyan terrorist, whose purpose is to free the culprit behind the Lockerbie bombing, kept imprisoned in Belmarsh jail. There is a daring rescue operation involving British navy which results in the kidnapper getting killed. To complete the circle of the recurring character arc, the regular villain Faulkner happens to be imprisoned in the same prison as the Libyan terrorist, after being arrested in a daring coup attempt, "kidnapped" from his Spanish bunker. The entire act of how William and Hogan goes about setting a trap for Faulkner and how they bring him back to England makes for interesting read. Beth and Christina, the respective spouses of William and Faulkner, gets a smaller note in this otherwise voluminous book, with both of them forming a joint venture to buy famous paintings in auctions only to sell them at a premium.
Despite having so many moving pieces and continuity related sections, the story never feels dull or slow or struggle for cohesiveness. All the moving parts come together organically and the new sections of the story also evolve without disturbing the other moving pieces. "Traitors gate" the next in the series, happen to be in continuation with the Royal setup, with the Queen's yearly visit to the parliament and the ceremonies preceding and succeeding that event happens to be the crux of the plot. Looks like Faulkner, who by twisting every legal loop hole possible, having cut short his prison stay is out to get his revenge over his nemesis. The book has already made an interesting beginning and looking forward to the rest of it soon.
Comments
As usual I catch on some throw away line in your post and build a comment around it. Sorry Gilsu. I haven't read any of this series and the last Jeffrey Archer book I read has been so long ago that I can hardly offer anything sensible to this ace book reviewer.