Over My Dead Body

To begin, let me say that I have a great deal of respect for Jeffrey Archer and his accomplishments as a writer. One of my favorite book series written by Jeffrey Archer is the seven-volume Clifton Chronicles. In that series, the character of William Warwick was introduced to the readers for the very first time. Warwick is rapidly rising through the ranks and making tremendous progress in his career with the London Metropolitan Police Force. In a very short amount of time, Warwick has firmly established himself as an important member of the MET. The fourth book in the series, Over My Dead Body, shows how great Warwick is at solving crimes.The year is 1988, and Warwick has now been promoted to the position of Detective Chief Inspector. As the Metropolitan Police prepares to form a new 'cold case' unit, Warwick is eager to participate in one or more of the department's upcoming investigations. The Cold Case Team is made up of DCI Warwick, DI Ross Hogan, and a few more investigators. Each of these detectives has been tasked with a variety of unsolved cases, and each of these cases involves an individual whom the police think to have gotten away with a crime.In addition to his new responsibilities, Warwick is still working hard to recapture his archrival, a billionaire art collector and thief named Miles Faulkner, who has managed to escape justice so far. While everyone thinks he is dead, Faulkner is really hard at work behind the scenes, trying to construct an empire. Even after his recent funeral and plastic surgery, Warwick and his team will be able to easily identify him as being very much alive and on the run.After the events of the book Turn a Blind Eye, DCI Warwick and his wife embark on a much-needed relaxing cruise together, which is their first genuine vacation in a long period. Unfortunately, the journey doesn't turn out quite like they had hoped. Warwick and his wife, Beth, are thrust into the middle of a tumultuous situation when the owner of the cruise liner dies suddenly on board, perhaps under suspicious circumstances. Warwick is compelled to return to work and investigate a murder that occurred on board. Having made acquaintances with a young guy who aspires to follow in his footsteps, Warwick demonstrates that a detective is always "on duty" by assisting in the discovery of truth that would not have been exposed otherwise on their journey. This part of the novel reads very much like an old-fashioned whodunit mystery, similar to the style of Agatha Christie's popular Poirot series. This episode was particularly well-written, with a compelling mystery aspect; even the characters presented here were stronger than those introduced later in the novel.Even though Warwick has spent a significant amount of time working for the Metropolitan Police in London, he still does not know what the day will bring when he reports at the workplace each day. After returning from vacation, he is assigned to the interesting Unsolved Murders Unit, or "Cold Case Squad," in an effort to apprehend criminals who may have escaped justice. Warwick, with the assistance of a former undercover agent, starts working on the mountain of cases in an effort to win the favor of his superiors. Finding the mysterious Miles Faulkner, a billionaire with criminal intentions who was reported dead a few months ago, tops the list.As Warwick races around Europe to solve the cold cases, he is always on the hunt for information about where Miles Faulkner has gone and what plans he may have for re-establishing his empire. Warwick must move quickly in order to earn his keep, but he must also be mindful of how he may permanently ensnare his biggest adversary. Like any good Jeffrey Archer tale, this one keeps the reader turning pages right up to the climax.William Warwick is making steady progress in his career at the Met, despite the fact that many of the people around him believe he will fail soon. Although he has a wonderful sense of humor as well as investigative talents required to demonstrate his expertise, the reader is drawn to him mostly because of his grit and determination to solve the mystery. In the novel, Warwick's personal and professional growth is noticeable. This lets fans of the series see how his character develops as the books go on, and it also impresses people who are new to Warwick and many of his quirks.In addition to William Warwick, DI Ross Hogan is the other character who stands out as a bright star in the novel. The way he carried himself and the events that happened around him gave the impression that the author had put some intentional effort into developing his character. He was a likable, multifaceted character with both redeeming qualities and weaknesses. Although DI Hogan and his changing position in the story stood out to me as unique from the rest of the squad, I found that many of the other characters were just melted into the background. There was an insufficient amount of development put into secondary characters, which prevented any of them from being memorable.For a long time, I've been a big admirer of Jeffrey Archer's work, and I don't care about any of the personal controversies that other people may bring up in discussion. His stories not only have a great plot structure, but also include exciting adventures and flow naturally into one another. There's complexity to them, and this series has maintained all of its intensity as it's progressed. Archer has written four of the eight books that are planned to be included in William Warwick series; however, there is a significant amount of room for the development of the storyline. I am quite excited to be a part of it because I am aware that there are going to be a lot of twists along the way and I'm waiting for 'Next In Line".

Enjoyed reading it!Very fast-paced, lovely experience coming back to Jeffrey Archer after years. The William Warwick series is even better than The Clifton Chronicles!

It is in Jefferey Archer’s inimitable style . Very enjoyable!

I always like the way Mr. Jeffrey Archer penned every book. His writings are so intense that I can't help myself being an unnamed character in your every book.

Written well, a bit of suspense and well paced

It's difficult to believe that the William Warwick series is written by Jeffrey Archer. I've been a huge fan of Archer's for over 25 years and have read every one of his books more than once. Lately I find myself reading the new releases more out of a sense of loyalty, and a hope that this one will be better. But I have so far been disappointed.The plot lines seem to be getting weaker and weaker, and many incidents in the book seem to be not very well thought out. One small example (without giving anything away) - if the police is doing a nighttime stealth raid on a house to capture one person who may be in either of two rooms, one of which has an escape route, wouldn't they check the room with the escape route first, or at least both rooms at exactly the same time?

Stated earlier that he is too good. Good for reading while travelling.

Well, not really the best from the master. But perhaps every time i re-read one of his older books, my expectations go up. It's great for easy reading on a flight or at a hotel. But definitely not worth slotting into your book shelf, once done.

It's been a while since I read the earlier volumes in the William Warwick series, but even so I think I would remember anything that put me off them. Has Archer's style changed dramatically of late? I find the conversations, of which there is an abundance, in this his latest WW book contrived, belaboured and hifalutin.Take, for instance, in the course of a conversation, the emergence of a discourse - take a deep breath, one sentence, all of 41 words - on the origins of 'a feather in his cap'. I switched off, however interesting the explanation might be. It is so unrealistic, a testament more to Archer's erudition than to his craftsmanship.Elsewhere we are fed lists of names of artists (and museums/galleries), about whom I'm left not much the wiser, or, indeed interested; the same might be said of just the two that are germane to the plot. Compare that with the subtler manner in which Michael Connelly weaves into one of his 'Bosch' novels the intriguing significance of the owl in the paintings of his protagonist's mediaeval namesake. Suffice it to say, I now have a volume of reproductions of that magnificent artist's output...Moreover, in Archer's book I sense an occasional whiff of moralising, and though I have yet to spot any of the usual kind of product placement, I suspect it can be found nevertheless in all that name-dropping.I'm still soldiering on with it in the hope that its merits will outweigh its faults, but my reaching the end is open to doubt. Frankly, give me instead the 22 or so volumes of Connelly's Bosch any day.POSTSCRIPT (some time before April 2022):I've started so I'll finish. I did. Ugh.Maybe some worthy souls tackling the Lyke Wake Walk feel likewise...There's a hint of a cliffhanger in the ending, perhaps enticing us to gobble up the next WW volume. Some, having plodded along Archer's path, might prefer the walk to the cliffs at Ravenscar than fall for that one...

I could not wait for this book, even paid £12.99 and on my budget not the easiest BUT I feel cheated.To have a new character come along was good but.... For him to tie everything up seemed disingenuous to the whole series of books.Further, It was set in 1988 - there were no mobile phones that fitted into your pocket yet this was a key elemenent in one of the shootings BUT the unforgiveable act was the ending. What happened? What happened to the wife the lawyer? I feel so cheated and after reading his first book when I was 16 and I'm now 52, I expected better of such an amazing author.

I've written critical reviews of Archer's books previously and not had them published here. Perhaps I'll be luckier this time. Two things in particular spoiled my enjoyment and made me wonder whether I ought to bother with the last book in the series. 1) As another correspondent has mentioned, this book is set in 1988. Mobile phones were in their infancy and you needed a stchel to carry one, so heavy was it and 2) Mr Archer ought to come down from his high castle and find out how the peasant's live. Boarding a bus Miles Faulkner is approached by the "ticket collector" who asks his destination before issuing him with a ticket. The person issuing the ticket was either the bus driver (if the bus was One Man Operated) or the Conductor if manned by a two person crew. Even someone from the bus company who boarded to check issued tickets would be a (ticket) Inspector. A tcket collector would have been found collecting train tickets as passengers left a railway station platform and I think they'd gone out of fashion eaons previously.

I do love an Archer story but after so many they can get a little, shall we say 'samey'. This one was heading that way when whoa, I didn't expect that! It took a darker direction and for it, became a much better read. Not sure by the end who is now the hero for me? Can't wait for the next one Jeffrey!

Geoffrey Archer has resisted the trend of descending into depravity ,gratuitous gory detail and foul language that has ruined the more recent Banks novels and riddled JKRowling's "Strike" stories,(Robert Galbraith) making them the stuff of nightmares. So if you like to read a clever crime novel that won't keep you awake after you turn out the light, Archer is your man.