Afternoon everyone and happy Sunday. Hopefully you’re all having an easy breezy chilled Sunday like I am. I haven’t achieved an awful lot today other than finishing this book and relaxing. That’s exactly what Sundays are made for in my opinion and I have no regrets.

Book 📖

I made a small error when choosing my next book to read. I had a book in my ARCs that I was planning to read next and actually started it. After about fifteen minutes I felt like I was missing something and then realised I was reading the fourth book of a series. I am a series fiend so I quit immediately and downloaded the first 3 in the series. So here we are; Nothing Ventured by @Jeffrey_Archer. The first book in the Detective William Warwick series.

Description 🔖

William Warwick has always wanted to be a detective despite the disappoint this yields from his father; Sir Julian Warwick QC. He has always hoped that William would follow in his footsteps, but William ends up kick starting his career on the beat with London’s Metropolitan Police.

This doesn’t last long as William is soon promoted to Detective and placed within a team at Scotland Yard. Whilst investigating the theft of an invaluable piece of art from the Fitzmolean Museum he meets and falls head over heels in love with Beth Rainsford. Everything is slotting into place in William’s life but will he manage to overcome his criminal battle with the defendant Miles Faulkner and his lawyer Booth Watson QC whilst trying to help Beth with her battle in court?

General Thoughts 🤔

I’m so glad that I stopped the fourth book and went back to the first. I’m sure that it could have been read standalone if I’d have given it time, but it was so good to go back to the very beginning of William’s career. This book was just as much about his start in life and progression to detective than it was about the case he was working on. I imagine that this context will do me well when I move onto the subsequent books.

There was lots to follow in this story but it was great. It kept me very engaged and it definitely wasn’t a book that I could sit back and be passive with. I really had to concentrate on every chapter otherwise I was lost. I found that to be a positive thing as I was hooked and couldn’t wait to get to the end of the book to see how it was going to end. I love investigative thrillers and this book lived up to my expectations.

Characters 👬👭👫

William was a very likeable character. It was obvious that he came from a fortunate background (I certainly don’t know any adults who call their mother mama), but he didn’t want to ride on his father’s coat tails and was adamant that he would build his career from the bottom up. I had a lot of admiration for him for that.

I didn’t like William’s father very much to begin with and I can’t say that I was his biggest fan by the end of the book but I found a respect for him. I didn’t agree with some of his opinions and found him to be snobby and a touch rude. The tables turned slightly for me when he stood for what was right and helped Beth.

I’m hoping that some of the characters from the book hang around for the rest of the series as I felt like there was so much more to learn about some of them and I’m hoping I get the chance to do that.

Writing Style ✍️

I may very well have been the only book blogger on the planet who had never read a Jeffrey Archer book. Well not anymore! I’m not a complete recluse and I obviously know how successful and popular his books are but maybe that was the reason I had never picked one up. I’m happy to report that I do not regret my decision to give him a go.

My first impression after reading Nothing Ventured was that this guy obviously does an awful lot of research for his books. There was so much detail about art in this book it really was impressive. It helped the book feel realistic but also kept me drawn in to the story.

I particularly liked the latter end of the book when the narrative was switching between court rooms. There were some lovely cliff hangers sewn into there that had me on the edge of my seat.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖️

I really enjoyed Nothing Ventured and I feel like I’m really going to grow to love Detective William Warwick. I’m not going to waste any time and will be throwing myself straight into the second book in this series. Can’t wait to see what William does next and watch his and Beth’s relationship flourish.

😍😍😍😍😩