POPULAR WENDY HOLDEN OVER MY DEAD BODY

by Jeffrey Archer

(HarperCollins £20, 384 pp) thE world’s poshest

policeman, William Warwick, is aboard an ocean liner where a murder takes place.

Meanwhile, on dry land, Miles Faulkner, the Moriarty to WW’s holmes, is up to his old art-stealing tricks again. this time he’s trying to pinch a Caravaggio as well as marry his ex-wife, who’s actually his widow because he’s faked his own death.

Oh, and he’s completely transformed his appearance. this may sound confusing, but it gallops along, full of cryptic one-liners and heavily seasoned with police procedure and museum politics (Warwick’s wife, the snippy Beth, is a curator).

A cracking read. Archer fans will lap it up.