David Rollins - The Vin Cooper Series

With the impending release of Hard Rain by David Rollins I thought I might quickly backtrack and remember 2 of his earlier books.

Hard Rain (published by Macmillan Australia) is the third book in the Vin Cooper series, the other 2 books being The Death Trust and A Knife Edge. Vin is a major in the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations, or as he puts it an internal affairs cop. Vin Cooper has the very entertaining habit of turning on the wisecracks whenever he feels as though he is on the back foot. He wisecracks a lot.

Special Agent Vin Cooper was introduced in The Death Trust. In that book he investigated the death of General Abraham Scott in a glider accident in Germany. Two things were made quickly apparent, Cooper is a damn fine investigator and a major pain in the ass for just about every person he comes in contact with.

It's on this first investigation that he meets Special Agent Anna Masters and they form a stormy partnership that would carry over into A Knife Edge.

A Knife Edge takes place largely on US soil with a series of shocking deaths of military personnel. A shark attack, a terrorist attack in San Francisco and a parachuting accident are linked together to set up a wild foray into the unfriendly highlands of Pakistan.

Both The Death Trust and A Knife Edge are high quality, fast-paced action thrillers that feature one of the more easy-to-identify-with characters that I have come across. Speaking personally, both of these books left me looking forward to another episode.

Vin Cooper and Anna Masters are back in Hard Rain, this time they're in Istanbul, Turkey for a hellish investigation into the death of the US Air Attache to Turkey, Colonel Emmet Portman. Making the job an even more uncomfortable one is that Anna has recently become engaged and Vin is far from happy. And he's the kind of guy who expresses his displeasure in a very distinctive way.

By the way, a discussion about the Vin Cooper series would not be complete without a mention of Nelson Demille's series featuring John Corey (I've made this comparison before). There are a number of Vin Cooper's characteristics that certainly reminds me of John Corey and this alone should send you sprinting to the bookstore to get your copies of all of the Vin Cooper books.

Look forward to getting your hands on Hard Rain which will be released early in July.