AUDIO BOOK REVIEW: Nothing Ventured by Jeffrey Archer

  

Publication Date: September 3 2019 Format: Audio Genre:  Saga/Mystery Narrators: George Blagden

Publisher: Macmillan Audio                 Length: 9 hours 27 min Buy: Kindle | Audio

Synopsis

This is not a detective story, this is a story about the making of a detective....

William Warwick has always wanted to be a detective and decides, much to his father’s dismay, that rather than become a lawyer like his father, Sir Julian Warwick QC, and his sister, Grace, he will join London’s Metropolitan Police Force.

After graduating from university, William begins a career that will define his life: from his early months on the beat under the watchful eye of his first mentor, Constable Fred Yates, to his first high-stakes case as a fledgling detective in Scotland Yard’s arts and antiquities squad. Investigating the theft of a priceless Rembrandt painting from the Fitzmolean Museum, he meets Beth Rainsford, a research assistant at the gallery who he falls hopelessly in love with, even as Beth guards a secret of her own that she’s terrified will come to light.

While William follows the trail of the missing masterpiece, he comes up against suave art collector Miles Faulkner and his brilliant lawyer, Booth Watson QC, who are willing to bend the law to breaking point to stay one step ahead of William. Meanwhile, Miles Faulkner’s wife, Christina, befriends William, but whose side is she really on?

Review: 

I haven't read a Jeffrey Archer book since I was in my 20's so this was a great find.  I forgot how well he can suck you into a story and really make you feel like you are almost friends with the characters.  I found myself routing for William, feeling disappointment at his failures, almost in tears at his losses, and angry at his setbacks.  

The narration is great in this book, giving us great English and Scottish accents where needed, and letting you lost yourself in the plot. Williams upper class family doesn't understand why he wants to be a policeman and keep trying to remind him that he could have a different life.  But William has wanted to be a police officer since he was 8. With a background in art history he finds himself on a case of a missing Rembrandt, a fantastic fake and beautiful museum employee who seems to be keeping secrets from him.  

I love that we don't only see how William solves crimes but the outcomes and things he does wrong.  He has flaws, makes mistakes, finds himself taking things for granted and sometimes winds up on the wrong side of things.  I also like that the law isn't always just and there we are privy to the ways criminals try to manipulate the system.  

Overall this is a great book and a good start to a new series, I'm excited to read the 2nd in this series.

 

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