Jeffrey Archer’s Nothing Ventured

 

Jeffrey Archer’s Nothing Ventured

 

At last!  My heart be still!  A detective novel that doesn’t cover the floor and walls with the blood of the guilty and innocent comingled.   Listen to me, novelists!  Please listen!  You can write a wonderful story, wound and bound in mystery, intrigue and villainy without the crack of the pistol, and the plunge of the knife.

 

Jeffrey Archer’s Nothing Ventured is explained as: Not a detective story, but a story of the making of a detective.  Yes, there is villainy galore and nefarious crimes, but these are cases that enlighten you with the dark sides of the art world, stolen masterpieces, fabrications, crosses and double crosses, matrimonial disharmony and true love.  This is an exciting tale, laced with rye British humor and very few annoying clichés.

 

Detective Constable William Warwick is a rank beginner in the business of becoming a policeman, but he’s bright, well educated and in no time is plunged into the world of stolen art and the department at Scotland Yard dealing with Money Laundering, Arts and Antiques.  It’s a perfect place for a university graduate whose major was art and art history.

 

Yes, there is a place for art history majors to earn a living and Jeffery Archer has found a place most intriguing.  The son of a noted barrister, Warwick is more than familiar with the law, but he’s also able to grate the nerves of superiors by often being outspoken and correct.

 

You may have found, as I have, that large organizations tend to be stifled by the happiness of contending with the same old problems in the same old ways. The organization finds fresh ideas as uncomfortable as announcing the king has no clothes.  And Detective Constable Warwick is a prince of new ideas.

 

So intriguing to watch him keep his balance and find his way through the dark and dusty halls of bureaucracy. 

 

Nothing Ventured is a new adventure in detective fiction that relies heavily on real personalities, humor, and ingenious plots, as Jeffery Archer’s creation, Detective Constable Warwick, weaves his way across the breath of Western Europe and through twists and turns of English justice, all without sloshes of blood and murder. 

 

I read this book rapidly.  It’s one of those stories that begs you to read just one more chapterbefore turning out the bedside lamp, then to read just one more chapter before your first morning cup of coffee.

 

Happily, Nothing Ventured is just the first volume of three in the adventures of Detective Constable Warwick. I’ve already ordered the second book!