Traitor's gate by Jeffrey Archer

The book is interestingly title to start with and right from the beginning is noticeably a much fast moving story than the previous books in the series. Archer is at his premium form in the book and does what he does best - bring in the fiction element amidst well known facts. This time it happens to be Queen's address of the first meeting of the newly formed government after each election. There are certain ceremonies involved like presenting the Crown jewels for the meeting and the story is about how Miles Faulkner, the series villain is set out to steal them and humiliate William and his team who are responsible for the royal protection unit. The story begins as a continuation from one of the conversations that happens between Miles and William regarding a painting donated by the villain to get favorable verdict on an almost convictable case. Only for William to figure out that the painting donated by Miles happens to be a fake and the original is at his US residence. Coincidentally that house comes for sale and in the ad posted in NYT, the picture of that painting gets published. Before Miles could stop the ad, it catches the eye of the cop gang's friend and they set about a plan which is as air tight as a broken sieve. Despite the probability of it happening is less than zero, Beth (William's wife), William and Hogan go with the plan of swapping the fake with original with Miles closely following their plan, one step ahead every step of the way. There is a last minute twist, typical to Archer, where Miles' wife switches side and the original ends up at its rightful place. Thirsty for revenge, Miles takes up the opportunity that presents itself in the form of the heist. The intention of Miles is not to steal them for its impossible to sell them, but only to humiliate the task force responsible for protecting them, there by finishing their career as well once and for all. The story begins to take more pace from this section onwards, as to how the villain group plan for every step of the process and especially the last 50 odd pages are literally a race against time with the coup actually happening and how things unravel within the next one hour with Archer running a countdown minute by minute. Kodumai being i started reading this portion at late night and couldn't sleep without finishing it till 2 in the morning!!! Personally i liked this one the best of the lot and it made me wish i was reading the series from start to finish rather than having begun with the last book. It would've made the suspense even more thrilling as to what would be happening next. But for all his bravado and wealth, Miles happens to be a funny villain character like Vadivelu, who is like evlo adichaalum thaanguvaan pola case!! He makes elaborate schemes and wins some small bits as well, mainly against his wife. But in the end due to slight sothapals it all bounces back on him and wonder how such a repeat offender gets away so easily in a jury based setup. Traitor's gate also has a bit of history about Captain Blood, who was the original gangster, who managed to steal the jewels and like Miles, ended up not just surviving the heist and getting caught, but also lived a much wealthy life post that event. If anyone is following this series, this is one book that they will surely enjoy for it has all the thrills that comes with an Archer book.