Jeffrey Archer’s newest novel in the William Warwick series is “An Eye for an Eye.” I had no idea when I started the thriller that it was part of a series, but it quickly became clear that the plethora of characters were ones that would be known to regular readers of Archer’s newest series. While I struggled a bit with all the names, the action and the plot were sufficiently intriguing that I wanted to find out what would happen next, and eventually all the different characters crystalized individually in my mind.

The novel begins with Simon Hartley, one of the main characters, who is meeting with his dying father. During that meeting, they discuss how Simon’s mother will be financially cared for, and most importantly for the events of the story, how a copy of the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson and loaned to a member of Simon’s family, will be returned, at long last, to the American government, as Jefferson had indicated in his letter to Simon’s ancestor.

We then learn that Simon has traveled to Saudi Arabia to represent the British government in their negotiation to seal an arms deal with the Saudis worth three billion pounds. There is a Lebanese agent involved who is looking for a ten percent cut of the deal if he can get the British the contract, but as we quickly learn, this agent is as amoral and ruthless as can be. His only goal is to make as much money as he can, however he can. Simon is framed for a murder and ends up in a Saudi jail, and those who might testify to his innocence are bribed or threatened and won’t testify.

We also meet Inspector Ross Hogan, who is a familiar name to readers of the series. When the only witness who might testify to Simon’s innocence is a British prostitute, it’s Ross the British government relies on to go to Riyadh to spirit her out of the country. Archer describes the actions of the characters, the good guys barely outwitting the bad guys, the deaths, and the double-timing, and we marvel at how he creates a complex, complicated web of intrigue with layers of good guys on one side trying to do the right thing, and two very bad guys on the other side. One is Miles Faulkner, an extremely wealthy British mastermind criminal who is just set to get out of jail, and who has revenge in mind for those who helped get him incarcerated, and the other, Hani Khalil, a Lebanese agent who works with the Saudi Minister of Defense’s son, another sleazy, no-good, do-nothing, scion of someone important.

There are, of course, many twists and turns, and the action takes us from the bucolic British countryside to Riyadh to New York City and an auction at Christie’s. The action is nonstop, and the narrative switches quickly from place to place and from one character to another; from the Governor of the jail in Riyadh where Simon is being held to his family home in Bucklebury in Berkshire, where Faulkner meets with Simon’s mother in an effort to cheat her out of a family heirloom that isn’t really theirs.

Archer succeeds in creating a pulse-pounding sense of urgency as the characters—good and bad— race against the clock throughout the novel to try to further their goals. Lives are on the line, millions and billions of pounds are at stake, and several of the players are completely ruthless in their determination to become even more powerful through that most important device, money.

What we find is that the characters surprise us, from Simon’s seemingly rather frail mother to Simon himself. The ending is very satisfying, but Archer cleverly provides very much of a cliffhanger, ensuring that readers will be ready to read the next book in the series. While I would highly recommend reading the previous books in the series to have a better idea of who all the characters are, this does work as a stand alone novel.

This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.