Next in line

In the fifth William Warwick novel, it's 1988, and Detective Chief Inspector Warwick is tasked with vetting the Royalty Protection Command, the special service responsible for safeguarding the lives of the British royal family, a matter of great concern as the popularity of Diana, "the people's princess," grows. Warwick's team soon uncovers some worrisome problems within the RPC, but that's not the most troubling thing they discover: it seems that an unknown group of people has targeted the royals and, by extension, England itself. The Warwick series began with young William as a newly minted police officer, and his rise to the top ranks of the Metropolitan Police Force has given Archer the chance to develop his hero, both as a policeman and as a person. As readers of Archer's multigenerational historical sagas know, he is very good at telling a character's story over the course of several books, and the Warwick novels really spotlight that craftsmanship. Archer always brings a strong sense of verisimilitude to his Warwick adventures, as though drawing on real police cases. That's especially true here, given the book's downright tantalizing epigraph: "Is this a true story?" Maybe; maybe not. Either way, it's another excellent novel from a genre master.