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

Sunday, June 29, 2008

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.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

CWA Dagger Nominations 2008

The CWA Dagger Award shortlists have been announced. Once again Michael Robotham has managed to get himself nominated, or at least, his book SHATTER was nominated on his behalf.

The full list is as follows:

THE DUNCAN LAWRIE INTERNATIONAL DAGGER

Andrea Camilleri, THE PATIENCE OF THE SPIDER (Picador)
Stieg Larsson, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Quercus)
Dominique Manotti, LORAINE CONNECTION (Arcadia)
Martin Suter, A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL (Arcadia)
Fred Vargas, THIS NIGHT'S FOUL WORK (Harvill Secker)

IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER

Mo Hayder, RITUAL (Transworld)
Gregg Hurwitz, I SEE YOU (Little, Brown)
Michael Robotham, SHATTER (Little, Brown)
Tom Rob Smith, CHILD 44 (Simon & Schuster)
David Stone, THE ECHELON VENDETTA (Penguin)

THE JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER

Zoe Ferraris, THE NIGHT OF THE MI'RAJ (Little, Brown)
Elena Forbes, DIE WITH ME (Quercus)
Caro Ramsay, ABSOLUTION (Penguin)
Matt Rees, THE BETHLEHEM MURDERS (Atlantic Books)
Tom Rob Smith, CHILD 44 (Simon & Schuster)

THE DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY

Elizabeth Corley
Andrew Martin
Denise Mina
Craig Russell
CJ Sansom
Chris Simms

THE DEBUT DAGGER

Amer Anwar (UK) - Western Fringes
Belinda Bauer (UK) - Blacklands
Russell Colman (Canada) - Desert Storm
Peter Dewar (UK) - The Eclipse of Lilith
Bill Harrison (Canada) - Nite Lite
Alison Marlow (UK) - The Stench of Lilies
James Oswald (UK) - The Book of Souls
Susan Schaab (USA) - Wearing the Spider
Ian Simpson (UK) - Devils and Disciples
PJ Watson (USA) - All the Wrong People

THE GOLD DAGGER FOR NON FICTION

Kester Apsden, NATIONALITY: WOG (Jonathan Cape)
Francisco Goldman, THE ART OF POLITICAL MURDER (Atlantic Books)
David Rose, VIOLATION (HarperPress)
Duncan Staff, THE LOST BOY (Bantam Press)
Kate Summerscale, THE SUSPICIONS OF DR WHICHER (Bloomsbury)
Peter Zimonjic, INTO THE DARKNESS (Vintage Books)

THE SHORT STORY DAGGER

Robert Barnard, "Provenance" (from THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST BRITISH MYSTERIES)
Michael Connelly, "One Dollar Jackpot" (from DEAD MAN'S HAND)
Martin Edwards, "The Bookbinder's Apprentice (from THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST BRITISH MYSTERIES)
Laura Lippman, "One True Love" (from BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 2007)
Danuta Reah, "Glazed" (from GETTING EVEN: REVENGE STORIES)

Well done to all the nominees but, of course, here's to Michael picking up the Steel Dagger.

The awards will be announced on July 10.