Archer master of the mystery

Over My Dead Body By Jeffrey Archer, HarperCollins, $45 .. .. .. ..

.. .. .. You always know Archer is going to produce a rip-roaring mystery — he's delivered so many.

But this is the fourth in the Detective William Warwick series, so if you haven't read any of the others, you'll be a bit at sea when it opens. Which is where our detective hero is.

He's on the SS Alden, a luxury liner on its way to New York for a wedding when the chairman of the Pilgrim Line that owns the ship dies on the sailing. Of course, he figures out that the man was poisoned, but can't prove it, when the victim is buried at sea.

Archer is a master of plot, tension, good dialogue and just plain excellent writing of a particular genre.

The first book I reviewed of his was the outstanding Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, in 1976. He's since perfected his craft — plot and counter plot, twist, well-rounded characters.

—