Harsimran Kaur ON  Oct 17, 2023, IN BOOK REVIEW,TRAITORS GATE BYJEFFREY ARCHER–FICTION

Rating: 4/5

Soaring in the clouts of misadventures, William Warwick is back to grind the hoarse grains sheathing the skin off the hard mount to make it slip in the caboodle of dispositions. I call him the ‘old rickety vehicle’ that may fear to lose its dexterity but not leave behind the valued significance of the journey. ‘William Warwick’—assiduous yet inexplicable in his actions is yet again faced with a fraught and frowsty indulgence, a bit airy fairy, around the forbidding Miles Faulkner.

So, what’s the deal about?

Auld Lang Syne, the crown jewels are picked up from the Tower of London and driven to Buckingham Palace in order to felicitate the state opening of the Parliament. A well-planned and a strategic maneuver, the entire process to carry the jewels and then to be brought back is a precious display of the honesty and the sovereignty of the Police department. It also showcases the responsible discipline of the Queen and its entourage to fulfill the ceremonial and official duties.

No gaps, no devilry! The diddle warring on the dilly-dally—a de trop; a responsibility the Chief Superintendent William Warwick along with Inspector Ross Hogan must attend to in lissome—the diadem they must protect at any cost.

With responsibility, though, comes dangerous liaisons often carried with dissension and dogged flattery. It’s the idea to heap the opponent on the pulverized ground or flesh the face with a diorite impressioning the simulacrum as diabolical. Miles is good at it but a deus ex machina helps William to come out of the woods fine. The animosity between Miles and Warwick feels like entity; assuaging egos to outstrip each other bereft of contrite, falling as a dewlap of comeuppance. Going back to the last book of the William Warwick series, ‘Next in Line’ it starts with saving the crown from a terrorist organization. The nefarious Miles is imprisoned by Warwick to now get back with vengeance in ‘Traitors Gate’.

Jeffery Archer—the master story-teller in his latest book has again cut the ground under the feet to dehisce the rivalry between William Warwick and Miles Faulkner. William has to protect the crown jewels and Miles will leave no stone unturned to make William slip into the slingy mud. Thus, starts the conflagration of dusty fumes to challenge each other’s courage; as ‘revenge’ for the obstreperous Miles and a ‘duty to protect’ for the éclat Warwick.

There is a plan; an arrow struck so hard that it does not fall back in the scabbard. The trail from the London Tower to the Buckingham Palace is well-orchestrated to rob off the jewels but is all this a devilry of one man—Miles Faulkner? Or, there is someone who is proficient to use casuistry & certitude to execute the chimera? It could be an insider who wants to stick another chord with life to leave behind a past. Or, Miles is truly the roasted mind to the conspiracy?

Jeffery Archer has this uncanny ability to give each of its characters an indigenous contradiction to their own motives; William Warwick in clanger of ‘What if’ the crown and jewels get stolen, Hogan finds duplicity in the chutzpah hanging bravely on Miles shoulders. Mrs. Faulkner knows when to turn the wheel, a compos mentis who eventually falls prey to Mile’s conceit. In the claptrap of such amusements, Mrs., Warwick accepts to be the Director of the ‘Ftiz Museum’ but too dawdles in the bedlam of a ‘Plot’ so secretively guarded by Miles.

All these characters ingratiate their beliefs to surrender to the anomaly; they finally have to face the treachery and deceit beyond comprehension.

• Will William Warwick be able to pull the rabbit under the hat?
• A theft so meticulously planned—will it see the light of the day or be a bohrium settled in a boneshaker?
• Will Miles be a taciturn spectator to the entire gauntlet or an invasive participant in the halberd scheming?

A routine turned into a gallimaufry of plots and schemes, the ‘Traitors Gate’ by Jeffery Archer is about finishing the task ad infinitum. Can William Warwick and Ross Hogan give ‘time’ a run of the money to change its course to their advantage?

TAKE AWAY

Like all Jeffery Archer books, this too is full of intrigue and revelations.