Jeffrey Archer’s AN EYE FOR AN EYE is book seven in the William Warwick British detective series.  This is my first foray into the series, and in my opinion, the reader does not need to have read the previous books to follow along with the plot of AN EYE FOR AN EYE.

There are two major mysteries going on that seem to be unrelated.  First is the death of an Italian man in Saudi Arabia for which a British government official (there to negotiate a multi-billion dollar arms deal)  is unjustly accused of murder and jailed.  The second is local skullduggery in the UK, with Lord Hartley’s death leading to lots of chicanery with the British peer’s estate.  The storyline toggled between these two plot lines, slowly centering on the Met's Chief Superintendent William Warwick and also the supposed “master criminal” Miles Faulkner.  Faulker is getting out of a short prison sentence and is determined to get his revenge on Warwick.

I’m underwhelmed by the competence of the characters in this book.  There are so many missed opportunities for a modicum of ability by anyone.  A woman who was a witness to the murder in Saudi Arabia is sent to “hide” with her mother in the English countryside?!  Sure, no one will think to look for her there!  Or the peer’s newly widowed wife turns over her husband’s estate to a barrister she’s first met at the funeral, without any references?!  The plot machinations feel way too facile for believability or enjoyment.  There is a lackluster spycraft at best.  And there are a lot of sloppy characterizations of people who seem to rely on banal generalizations (think jaded hooker, corrupt Arabs, shifty Italians…).

Reader beware, the story ends on a cliffhanger.  Supposedly the next book will be the last in the William Warwick series.  I think that fans of Dick Francis or the later Robert B. Parker books would possibly enjoy this light murder mystery.