Mystery and crime books from Australia. News, views, reviews, releases and author appearances - crime fiction in Australia. Crime novels, mystery novels, detective stories, police procedural books, thrillers and soft-boiled mysteries

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Reading: The Death Trust by David A. Rollins

In my bid to catch up on a couple of series that I have sadly neglected to read I have just started The Death Trust by David A. Rollins.

Rollins writes thrillers with a strong military background against enemies who threaten the safety of entire countries. The level of research he puts into each novel appears to be enormous and this pays great dividends with the result being high-powered thrillers that are completely engrossing.

The Death Trust is the 3rd book by David A. Rollins but the first to feature Special Agent Vin Cooper of the US Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Cooper comes off as a slightly cynical guy, burnt by a few setbacks in his life (just gone through a divorce, punched out a Colonel – things like that) but is more than willing to push things (such as punching out a Colonel, I guess). His military record is handily summarised at the start of the book telling us that he’s a more than capable soldier and will more than likely provide us some entertainment in the pages to come.

Plenty of humorous quips in the first 20 or so pages that had me smiling:

I’m not good with flying. Not any more. Not since Afghanistan. But they’re into it with a passion in the USAF, as you might expect.

And this one too:

I hoped Germany was more welcoming. I’d never been there but my grandfather had. I remembered him saying that it was not a very friendly place, and that people had shot at him and his tank often. But that was a long time ago.

I get the impression that The Death Trust is aimed at the US market, more so than Rogue Element and The Sword of Allah which both had strong ties to Australia. This puts Rollins in slightly uncommon group of authors who set their series in a country other than their own.

Others off the top of my head are:
Lee Child, an Englishman who sets his books in the US,
Elizabeth George, an American who sets her books in England,
Michael Robotham, an Australian who sets his books in England and
Marshall Browne, an Australian who has a series set in Italy plus a book set in Japan.

Anyway, so far so good, The Death Trust shows a lot of promise and actually reminds me a little of Nelson de Mille's John Corey books.

1 comment:

Peter Rozovsky said...

How about Michael Dibdin, an Englishman who has set a series of novels in Italy, or John Burdett and his Bangkok books?
===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder is More Fun Away from Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/