Cover Image: Hidden in Plain Sight

Hidden in Plain Sight

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

A suspenseful plot that kept me turning pages right up until the cliffhanger ending. I have not read all of the Detective William Warwick novels, so I was definitely missing some of the history and back story with these characters, but that did not take away from this story.

A great book for fans of police/detective mysteries.

Thanks to Mr. Archer,, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

Was this review helpful?

Jeffrey Archer’s Hidden In Plain Sight is another page turner with non stop action, likable characters, despicable villains, and crooked cops. Although the plot is somewhat predictable, I still read it to the end where we are left hanging like the previous William Warwick novel. I can’t wait to learn how Max Fairfield is apprehended and how William does in law school.

Was this review helpful?

Archer never disappoints. Another super fun page-turner!!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Was this review helpful?

Nobody tells a tale like Jeffrey Archer and I loved his second instalment of the William Warwick series. A fun ride although with some action that was, for me, a little far fetched.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. This review was voluntary.

Was this review helpful?

The 2nd installment in the Detective Warwick series by Jeffrey Archer picked up right where the first book left off. Detective Warwick is a very charming, old fashioned character, who is clever and honest...a real throwback for fans of Agatha Christie. In our story within a story (thank you Clifton Chronicles), our fictional Warwick has come to life and continues to tangle with Miles Faulkner...who may be one of the most clever villains I have come across, and we are introduced to some new faces in Scotland Yard. The book is set in the mid-80's in London and the references are a delight. To agree with Beth, David Niven really is quite dishy. You really feel like you're right there, back in time. The story reads at a nice pace, leaving me to eagerly flip the pages to find out what is going to happen next, and then in classic Archer fashion, you get to the last sentence, turn the page and say "What???? How can that be the end?" Eagerly awaiting the third installment to see where this story is headed.

Was this review helpful?

This is the second of Archer’s series featuring William Warwick, who is now a detective sergeant in London.
Warwick and his team are working on the Drugs Squad and are trying to capture notorious drug dealer Khalil Rashidi.
During the investigation, William convinces Adrian Heath, with whom he went to school (and who is now a street dealer) to become an informer. And in the middle of all this, William and his fiancee, Beth are planning their wedding.
There are times when the criminals slip through their fingers, but eventually Williams comes up with a way to catch them that is totally unexpected.

Was this review helpful?

This is the second book of the William Warwick Novels written by Jeffery Archer that chronicles Warwick's rise at Scotland Yard and battles with an old adversary as well as new ones. It is very slow moving and does not engage the reader as quickly as past novels. The first part of the book was slow-moving and boring and, then, as the plot got interesting the narrative ended with much of the story being left in limbo, this may be in hopes for an additional novel in the series but often times this strategy falls flat unless many books in the series are published quickly as often times the reader forgets the limbo from past novels. The book is rather dry for me and missing some excitement.


Thanks to Pan Macmillan, via NetGalley, for this ARC appreciate the opportunity to read this for an honest review..

Was this review helpful?

“Hidden in Plain Sight” by Jeffrey Archer drops readers into the middle of a team meeting of the Art and Antiques Squad. The main characters in this continue from the previous book, but relationships fold easily into current scenarios to help new readers catch up on previous action. There is new assignment with new responsibilities, an elite drugs unit. DC William Warwick pulls from his past to solve crimes of the present, and things are complicated when dealing with drug suppliers and users.
The story is about individuals, their activities, their feelings, their instincts, and their relationships with the public, both good and bad. Conversations and everyday activities provide the background that enables readers to know characters as people not just as law breakers and law enforcers. They are believable and persistent. Readers also experience events from both sides, however, things are not always what they appear to be, and sometimes people lie to get what they want. To bring down the “big prize,” the mega drug lord, the team employs the title strategy “hiding in plain sight.”

“Hidden in Plain Sight” is about people; they drive the plot, they drive everything. The story unfolds with suspense, action, and non-stop twists and turns. Things get better and more complicated as the story progresses and sometimes even the dead want revenge and justice.
And the ending? Well stay tuned! I receive a review copy of “Hidden in Plain Sight” from Jeffrey Archer and St Martin’s Press. I cannot wait for the next installment.

Was this review helpful?

Hidden in Plain Sight, by Jeffrey Archer, is the second entry in the William Warwick series. Fans of Archer’s previous series, The Clifton Chronicles, may recall that William Warwick was the hero of Harry Clifton’s novels. As with most of Archer’s protagonists, Warwick is exceedingly likeable…moral, honest, caring, attractive, smart and brave. Distinguishing the good guys from the bad is never all that difficult. Catching the bad guys is the objective, and it is the motor that drives the plot forward.

However good the plot is, the character development is always at the fore for me. Warwick is in the early stages of his career, and his development as a detective and as a man is the heart of the series. Archer is a master at populating his books with a cast of interesting supporting characters that are complex and nuanced.

The first third of this book was a bit choppy and sometimes challenging to follow. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the spent with the Warwick family, and I continue to recommend this series. Book 3 is expected to be released in April of 2021. Thanks so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review. It was a pleasure.

Was this review helpful?

A solid second installment of the William Warwick series with a few twists and turns. As usual, the author leaves you hanging in anticipation of his next effort.

Was this review helpful?

Hidden in Plain Sight is the second in Jeffrey Archer's Detective William Warwick series. The team moves from investigating art fraud cases to going after the biggest drug king pin in London. They know who he is but they don't know what he looks like or where he runs his business. Warwick is coming up against another smart adversary but is he smarter than Warwick or can Warwick's team win.
I enjoyed the story. The villain from book one is still a main part of this story. Now I did not read that one but I am told enough information for that story line to not confuse me. I like that it is set in 1980s London, which is different than current detective stories (now you either get historical or modern but small town). Finally this was a quick read so I will probably get book three, Archer did leave a cliffhangerish ending.

Was this review helpful?

I've been a fan of Jeffrey Archer's books for years - - since way back to Kane and Abel! He's an accomplished storyteller and knows how to keep the reader entertained. I didn't like this book quite as well as the first in this series, but it's still a good one. It was good to see familiar characters and 'catch up with their lives'.

My only real complaint with this book is the way things constantly jump around. One can be reading about William and Beth talking about their wedding and in the next sentence (without warning) we're on to Faulkner; then in the next sentence, smack dab in the middle of a courtroom drama etc. etc. etc. There seemed to be no continuity and it felt almost like Archer had someone else writing part of the book and just stuck sentences in here and there. It made for a bumpy read which I didn't expect and it detracted from enjoyment. Nonetheless, I'll be looking forward to Book 3 in this series.

And the cliffhanger in this book proves there will be more adventures to come.

Was this review helpful?

Published by St. Martin's Press on November 3, 2020

Jeffrey Archer has been chronicling the early career of his fictional creation, William Warwick, who appears later in life in Archer’s Harry Clifton novels. In Nothing Ventured, Archer described Warwick’s efforts to thwart art forgers, a gig he scored by virtue of his degree in art history. Warwick begins Hidden in Plain Sight with a promotion to the rank of Detective Sergeant and reassignment to a new team that is chasing the big dog of London drug smuggling. “The Viper” runs a good chunk of London’s illicit drug market from the top three floors of a building that houses his manufacturing and distribution business. The location, however, is a mystery to the police.

Despite Warwick’s shift to the drug task force, an interesting plot thread continues the art theft plot that drove Nothing Ventured. Miles Faulkner, whose sentence for art fraud was suspended, attempts to foil Warwick’s marriage to Beth. Miles is having marital problems of his own, problems that motivate him to engage in a couple of new crimes to thwart his soon-to-be-ex-wife’s effort to take his house, his art collection, and pretty much everything he owns. By novel’s end, the degree of his success will be in doubt, setting up the continuation of the story in the next novel.

Hidden in Plain Sight takes place in 1986, when it was still considered wise to declare war on drugs rather than treating them as a public health problem. While the drug plot has Warwick playing a significant role in the effort to find the Viper’s den, Warwick learns that his nemesis Faulkner is also involved in drug distribution, at least with regard to his elite friends. Warwick recruits an informant who helps him catch Faulkner with drugs, but whether the evidence will stand up in court leads to a trial that provides another plot point.

The courtroom theatrics are provided by Warwick’s father, representing the Crown, and his sister, who prosecutes as her father’s junior. I always enjoy courtroom scenes and this one is entertaining, in part because a prosecution witness turns out to be unreliable. Still, while discussions of courtroom strategy are always fun, cases turn on evidence and the evidence made the outcome fairly predictable, strategic considerations notwithstanding. As Rumpole sometimes mused, it is easy to prove that guilty person is guilty. Getting a guilty person acquitted is the real courtroom challenge.

My only knock on William Warwick as a character is his stalwart and unblemished nature. Warwick is known as “choirboy” because he is resolutely proper in everything he does. My sense is that Archer means him to be an exemplar of the British upper-crust at their best (Warwick’s father, Sir Julian, is a QC and his sister seems destined to become one). People of resolute moral character, at least in fiction, tend to a bit one-dimensional. All members of the Warwick family dispense bits of trivia so we know they are learned, but it takes more than an ability to explain the origin of “Bob’s your uncle” to give a character a memorable personality. I’d like to see Warwick let his hair down and show us his naughty side, except he doesn’t seem to have one.

Warwick’s moral rectitude does, however, set up a personal conflict (can he remain a police officer if he must serve a corrupt master?) that remains at the end of the novel. Since the Harry Clifton novels answer that question, it isn’t a cliff-hanger, but the novel does set up a (presumably) final conflict between Warwick and Faulkner in the next novel.

On the whole, I enjoyed Hidden in Plain Sight more than Nothing Ventured. There are fewer scenes of Warwick family gatherings that tended to slow the first novel, while the plot moves more quickly and in more directions. Readers who want their crime novel protagonists to be righteous defenders of the law and virtue will likely admire Hidden in Plain Sight.

RECOMMENDED

Was this review helpful?

The master of storytelling is back at the game with another great William Warwick thriller. I've read the Clifton series too and I could actually imagine Harry sitting down to write this book about Warwick- isn't that something? Faulkner is a worthy villain and provided some excellent twists once again.

I think it is time for me to re-read some of Archer's best books - I am going to start with Kane and Abel.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc.

Was this review helpful?

William Warwick a detective with a bit of street savvy and an unerring eye for detail. As such he knows the promotion he has received has come with a price. As he and his team pursue enemies old and new, he struggles to balance his personal and professional lives. An upcoming wedding offers a glimpse into his life away from the streets of London. All of this suggests that lives in the balance are lives on the edge.

Was this review helpful?

This is the second book in the William Warwick series. William has been promoted to Detective Sergeant. We follow the investigation of a London Drug Lord. During the pursuit of this dealer, he also comes in contact with a couple of his old nemeses.
Typical great storytelling by Jeffrey Archer. There were lots of twists and turns, ending with a cliffhanger. Really looking forward to the next installment of one of my favourite authors.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for a digital ARC for an honest review.

Was this review helpful?

Hidden in Plain Sight is a bit contrived, but nevertheless a good read. It continues the story of William Warwick who was introduced in a previous book. And, quite obviously, Jeffrey Archer leaves us hanging in anticipation of the next book in the series.

Was this review helpful?

I was not as fond of this one as other reviewers were. I found the writing to be choppy and abrupt. You would be reading one section and all of a sudden, with no warning, you were in another scene of action. I didn't like it and it wasn't smooth.

This is Warwick's second book and there were big changes for him. No only on the personal front but at work where he was assigned to a special squad designed to stop the drug trade. They are not after the small guys selling joints on the street corner but the guys supplying the drugs. They are given a lot of freedom and money to accomplish their goals.

The first criminal they go after is their old enemy, Faulkner, who is serving a suspended sentence from the the last book. He is undergoing a divorce which takes up a lot of the book. Faulkner is implicated in a cocaine scheme and Faulkner uses an old school chum as an informant.

The other case involves a very clever dealer who takes all the resources of the squad to investigate. The man is very intelligent and the squad has to take really complex steps to try and catch this clever man.

Both story lines were interesting but you would go from one investigation to another to a glimpse in Warwick's private life on the same page. It was disjointed to say the least. The book ends with multiple cliff hangers that will certainly bring you back for book #3. Archer is an experienced author who knows how to entertain his audience.

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

Was this review helpful?

Always a devoted fan of Sir Jeffrey Archer his last foray into the the world of Detective William Warwick was a slight letdown. The story was almost too well thought out. There was a brevity in places and terse language that was off putting. This is a good cops and robbers tale where the good guys don’t always figure it all out and come out on top. I love the small, almost hidden, twists and turns that you always find in Archer’s writing that constantly leave you wondering.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a copy.

Was this review helpful?

William Warwick and his family are once again the captivating players in another riveting novel providing the reader with real life insights into how the criminal justice system works in the United Kingdom. In this one novel we have DCS Warwick receiving a promotion, getting married to his girlfriend Beth, solving a variety of complex crimes. Contemporaneously, we see Warwick's Father and Sister preparing for and trying difficult criminal and civil cases related to Warwick's detective work.
The Characters in this series are well developed, accomplished at what they do and appealing, even including some of the "bad guys." It doesn't hurt that we also are provided the opportunity to learn more about the fine arts while following the story line. Full of twists, turns and surprises, it was difficult to put this book down.
Cannot wait for the next installment in this series from one of the best fiction authors of our time, Jeffrey Archer. I received an ARC for my honest opinion.

Was this review helpful?