Book Review of Turn A Blind Eye by Jeffrey Archer
Table of Contents
My Rating – 4.5 out of 5
Plot Summary – Turn A Blind Eye
The third installment of the much-loved Detective Inspector William Warwick series, Turn A Blind Eye, releases in a surprisingly short gap from the second one – Hidden In Plain Sight. Even better for fans like us! I suspect, the fourth of the series might get released around the Holiday season, 2021 but that might be a bit fanciful…This series started off as a spinoff of the Clifton Chronicles, where William Warwick is the fictional character in the protagonists novels. These are set in the late 1980’s London, so the technological advancements of the 21st century were still not available to even Scotland Yard.
Miles Faulkner, the rich Art Collector, thief and con-artist has escaped from jail and nobody knows his whereabouts. His ex-wife, Christina is devastated at the loss of her fortune through Miles’ deviousness and cunning. Meanwhile, after the success of the Trojan Horse campaign against the now apprehended dreaded drug lord, Assem Rashidi – awaiting trial, DI William Warwick is preparing for his testimony against Rashidi. His new role, after being moved from the Drugs section, is into investigating crooked cops, across the department. Ex-Superintendent Lamont, who was forced to retire on account of corruption, is also under watch.
William is given his choice of team – DS Paul Adaja, Detectives Rebecca Pankhurst and Nikki Bailey and Jackie – overseen by the fatherly Commander Hawksby, better known as The Hawk. The Task Force’s first target is Detective Jerry Summers, who has an incredible arrest record with multiple commendations, but seems to be living way beyond his means. The net is spread wide around him, with surveillance, honey-trap et al being used to snare him. There are several twists here, as is characteristic of Jeffery Archer. Snappy and witty one-liners with chapters ending with a suspense generating last word!
This is a story of two trials, one of Assem Rashidi and the other of Jerry Summers. In both cases, the Crown Prosecution team is led by William’s father, Lord Julien Warwick, assisted by his daughter Grace. On the defense side, the obnoxious Booth Watson, QC, is representing both Rashidi and Summers. In his traditionally magnetic style, Mr. Archer keeps you hooked thoroughly into the story and one just keeps on turning the pages, until you reach the last page and realize the next one’s not available yet!
Conclusion – Book Review of Turn A Blind Eye
My biggest gripe with this book is that the Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service are both depicted as rather inept and inefficient, though he does refer to the Yard as the most admired Police Force in the World. There is shoddy investigation here, unexplained gaps in the story and rather ill-prepared prosecution team who time and again get blindsided by the defense team – who are far more adept at influencing the jury or the judge and play around with evidence right under the Yard’s collective noses.
Because Mr. Archer is a Master Storyteller, he papers over these cracks with practiced deftness and manages to hole the readers attention throughout the novel, but there are some holes in the story and all his writing brilliance cannot hide that fact. One just hopes, as long time fans of the author, that the next one makes up for this. The all permeating feeling running through this book is that smart criminals can rather easily elude the law and at times, make a mockery of the Justice system. This is otherwise, well recommended to be put on your April TBR!
