Next in Line by Jeffrey Archer

Published by ‎ HarperCollins on September 27, 2022

One wonders how many novels Jeffrey Archer can milk from the career of William Warwick and his relentless battle against the nefarious criminal Miles Faulkner, as well as Faulkner’s unethical lawyer, Booth Watson. At least one more, apparently, as Next in Line leaves a plot thread dangling.

Princess Diana, the world’s favorite royal after the Queen grew to old to do anything interesting, is taking a break from Prince Charles. She’s yachting (and presumably canoodling) with a rich fellow when terrorists controlled by Gaddafi capture the yacht and take her captive. That’s a crime that differs from William Warwick’s usual fare. Perhaps Archer thought it was time to add some excitement to William’s drab life.

Now if Diana had actually been kidnapped, the world might have noticed, so this book might need to be viewed as an alternate history. In a brief statement at the end, Archer apologizes for making small changes in history while applauding himself for his meticulous research.

In any event, the kidnapping is a late addition to the plot. Most of the novel follows the usual path of a William Warwick story. William’s pretentious father is again prosecuting Faulkner, this time for the prison escape that occurred in Over My Dead Body. Watson tries to enrich himself by defrauding Faulkner and his client’s ex-wife Christina, who is once again playing tug-of-war with her ex-husband over his art collection. Unless it’s Christina’s art collection now — it’s difficult to keep track.

Inspector Ross Hogan takes a job as Diana’s personal protection officer, while William is assigned to an undercover job with Royal Protection (the British equivalent of America’s Secret Service, albeit charged with protecting royals rather than politicians). Warwick is investigating fraudulent claims for expense reimbursements submitted by the cops, which seems small potatoes compared to the money spent by British citizens to fund the royals. It is a big deal to William, however, who is absolute in his view that the police should never break the law — unless, of course, he’s kidnapping Faulkner in Spain and hauling him back to England without bothering to pursue an extradition. Like most people who make a show of their rectitude, William’s principles are flexible when it comes to William.

The story is a bit dull, if only because it seems like something series readers have encountered before — four times before when it comes to crimes involving Faulkner’s art collection. While the plot enlivens when the terrorists make their appearance, the terrorists are nearly as stupid as Bond villains. They discuss their plans within earshot of witnesses, not pausing to consider that the witnesses might have been planted by the police because they speak the terrorists’ language. They spare the life of a cop for no obvious reason other than Archer’s desire to avoid disappointing his readers by killing off a character they might care about.

Lengthy bits of the novel focus on two British obsessions: cricket and the correct protocol to follow when encountering a member of the royal family. British readers might find these bits of interest. I’ve read several novels that describe cricket matches and still can’t figure out how the match is scored, although I do like the customary break for tea in the middle of the game. Alan Lazard recently pretended to pour tea (or maybe a psychedelic drink) after scoring a touchdown for the Packers, but I can’t see impatient and uncivilized Americans tolerating a real tea break in any sport. On the other hand, some Americans do take an interest in royals, at least when they’re misbehaving. Archer portrays Diana as a misbehaving wife, although the world was willing to forgive Diana anything for enduring a marriage to the current king.

Maybe fans of royal scandals are a good audience for this book. I wouldn’t recommend the novel as a standalone because it is premised on so many events developed in the earlier novels. Readers who read the first four might as well read this one, but the last novel remains the best in the series, probably because it overcame the privileged stuffiness of the central characters.

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