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.

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.

2008 Ned Kelly Awards Long List

Australia's Crime Fiction award season is coming around again with the announcement of the long list of the 2008 Ned Kelly Awards. At this stage the long list is...well, long. As we draw closer to the Melbourne Writers Festival when the winners are announced, this list will be pared down to a short list.

BEST NOVEL

Trick or Treat by Kerry Greenwood
Cherry Pie by Leigh Redhead
Endangered List by Brian Westlake
Harum Scarum by Felicity Young
Sensitive New Age Spy by Geoffrey McGeachin
Sucked In by Shane Maloney
Night Has A Thousand Eyes by Mandy Sayer
Orpheus Lost by Janette Turner Hospital
Amongst The Dead by Robert Gott
Appeal Denied by Peter Corris
Open File by Peter Corris
Gospel by Sydney Bauer
Broken by Ilsa Evans
Skin And Bone by Kathryn Fox
Fan Mail by P.D. Martin
El Dorado by Dorothy Porter
Shattered by Gabrielle Lord
The Calling by Jane Goodall
Shatter by Michael Robotham
Game As Ned by Tim Peglar
The Tattooed Man by Alex Palmer
Blood Sunset by Jarad Henry
Redback by Lindy Cameron

BEST FIRST CRIME NOVEL

Golden Serpent by Mark Abernethy
Shadow Maker by Robert Sims
A Fraction Of The Whole by Steve Toltz
The Low Road by Chris Womersley
The Butcherbird by Geoffrey Cousins
Bye Bye Baby by Lauren Crow
Broken Swallow by JJ Burn
Green Velvet Shoes by Christina Ann Alexander
Frantic by Katherine Howell
Vodka Doesn't Freeze by Leah Giarratano
Iraqi Icicle by Bernie Dowling
Maelstrom by Michael MacConnell

BEST NON-FICTION

Bondi Badlands by Greg Callaghan
Underbelly The Gangland War by John Silvester and Andrew Rule
Killing Jodie by Janet Fife-Yeomans
Red Centre by Dark Heart, Evan McHugh
Big Shots by Adam Shand
Lives of Crime by Tippet & Munro
Fatal Flaw by Roger Maynard
Ned Kelly's Jerilderie Letter by Carole Wilkinson
Wild Colonial Boys by Paula Hunt

Book Review: Fan Mail by P.D. Martin

Title: Fan Mail
Author : P.D. Martin
Publisher: Macmillan Australia
ISBN: 9781405038263
No Pages: 400
Published Date: February 2008
Sub-genre: Thriller


Your words could make someone act.
You must stop writing this filth. It can only bring you pain, believe you me.
Yours Sincerely,
A fan

Sophie Anderson is a profiler with the FBI. She has been working with the behavioural Analysis Unit at Quantico but recently decided that she can be of greater benefit to crime victims if she worked in the field and has applied to be transferred to LA.

Sophie is more than just a highly accomplished profiler, she has an added talent that she prefers to keep hidden from her superiors within the Bureau. She has visions of the crimes she is working on. These visions sometimes put her in the role of the killer, other times as the victim or as an observer. Initially they were a deeply disturbing intrusion into her life, but as they continued, it was apparent that they had a habit of being unerringly accurate. She can’t control them but is beginning to accept them as a part of her and as a potentially vital tool to help her as she works a case.

Before Sophie even has a chance to walk into her office to take up duties in LA she finds herself thrown into a murder case. A crime novelist, one who had visited the FBI at Quantico, has been murdered and the novelists assistant called Sophie. The murder imitates almost precisely the way one of the victims was murdered in the author’s latest novel. Although the murder falls to the Beverly Hills PD to investigate, Sophie is drawn in thanks to having previously met the author before she moved. It’s a delicate position she finds herself in, having to tread carefully to avoid stepping on the toes of the officers involved, who wouldn’t appreciate the FBI muscling in.

As it turns out, the man heading the investigation is Detective Dave Sorrell, a homicide detective who has worked successfully with the FBI in the past and understands the value of using their resources. He’s a man with an abrupt manner which Sophie initially finds a little off-putting but they soon develop an efficient working relationship that gradually becomes quite complementary.

However their excellent teamwork isn’t enough, initially, to draw any great breakthrough in the investigation. And when a second crime author is murdered, also in the same manner as laid out in their novel, the stakes are raised enormously. Frustratingly for Sophie, the visions she hopes for to help in the investigation are either not forthcoming or apparently irrelevant to the case. It feels as though things are spiralling dangerously out of control when the third author is reported missing.

Fan Mail is more than the murder mystery it first looks as though it’s going to be. The solid forensic evidence gathering and criminal profiling put in by Sophie and Sorrell throws up some related cases and it looks as though it’s going to become a serial killer case, but their investigation always seems drawn back to the original murder.

Integral to the appeal of the story is the development of the working relationship between Sophie and Sorrell. It looks as though it has the potential to be the kind of friendship that will become a defining feature of the series.

Equally, the paranormal abilities of Sophie are beginning to take on more importance in the story. It’s a feature of the Sophie Anderson books that author P.D. Martin has nurtured carefully, refusing to rush the advancement of her abilities. It’s with a significant sense of careful development that we are experiencing her growth as she does.

It appears that P.D. Martin has developed a series within a series with an ongoing subplot that runs beneath the main story that is carried over from The Murderer’s Club and promises more to come in future books. It’s like you’re getting a 2 for 1 deal with two solid stories providing a memorable, multi-faceted thriller.

A word of warning on that last point though for anyone who hasn’t yet read The Murderer’s Club. Vital information about that book is revealed in the course of Fan Mail and it would be recommended that you go back and read the earlier book, if only to gain a clear understanding about what takes place here.

Fan Mail continues a strong series that has seamlessly blended the science of criminal profiling with Sophie’s paranormal abilities in a thriller that offers a great deal to the reader.

Reading Notes : A Deadly Business by Lenny Bartulin

I’m drawing to the end of Lenny Bartulin’s debut novel, A Deadly Business (pub. Scribe Publications). The book introduces Jack Susko, a Sydney second-hand bookstore owner, a character who is obviously going to be the main character in future books.

Jack Susko is an interesting character, quick of wit, long on endurance and just naive enough to get himself into a lot of trouble. The bookstore is very reminiscent of a number of the second-hand stores dotted around the city (sadly, most of them have closed down now).

“No, Jack Susko would not be retiring at the age of thirty-four. His view would remain the dusty shelves and battered paperbacks of the last year or so. Instead of up, he would climb down the steps into his basement shop in York Street in the city, where he spent the day making sure delinquent kids did not lift the stock.”

Jack gets the opportunity to make some easy money when Hammond Kasprowicz wants to buy every copy of poetry books by Edward Kass, an obscure Australian poet. Kasprowicz is prepared to pay $50 per copy for anything he had. The lure of easy money is enough to draw Jack out of his shop and, with a bundle of books under his arm he makes his way to Bellevue Hill and into the middle of an extremely confusing family battle.

Jack finds that there’s some competition out there in the search for Edward Kass books. Then he begins to have a few doubts about the motives of his client. Before he can act on those doubts, though, events swirl way out of control and the quiet bookseller finds himself busy dodging bullets.

I’m enjoying A Deadly Business. Bartulin has captured Sydney, both the landscape and the attitude of its inhabitants, with great accuracy. The book would have to be classed as a mystery novel as opposed to a crime novel and Jack Susko isn’t an investigator – not even amateur investigator. Instead he is a victim of circumstance who has been drawn into a conflict as an unwilling participant.

I’m looking forward to the next Jack Susko book to find out where Bartulin will take him.

May '08 New Releases

Crime fiction in Australia has been given another healthy injection in May with 4 new book releases and each of them looks to be well worth tracking down. This month I've been able to get a bit of a head start on the books, having read 2 of them and currently partway through reading a 3rd, so I can safely attest to the quality of crime fiction produced. The 4th book looks as though it could be a very interesting serial killer suitable for readers who don't mind the brutal fast-paced action thriller.

The Darkest Hour by Katherine Howell (pub. Macmillan Australia) - this is the second thriller by Katherine Howell and is the much anticipated follow up to Frantic. (Some places on the 'net still refer to this book as Panic which was the title that was originally proposed). The book features homicide detective Ella Marconi and follows a murder investigation dripping with complications. Some of those complications stem from the second strong female lead in the book, paramedic Lauren Yates who becomes crucial to the investigation. Howell works plenty of paramedic procedure into the book giving it a more interesting and unique aspect compared with other crime thrillers.

Blood Sunset by Jarad Henry (pub. Allen & Unwin) - another "2nd in a series" book. This is Jarad Henry's follow up to Head Shot which introduced Melbourne police detective Rubens McCauley. Blood Sunset takes us into the seamy St Kilda backstreets where we rub shoulders with the drug addicts, dealers and prostitutes who call the place home. Rubens is back at work after recovering from a gunshot wound but a mistake he makes when investigating a drug overdose death turns his life upside down. This is a strong hardboiled crime novel set in a searing summer heat in Melbourne. Bushfires surround the city which helps to add a menacing tone to the story.

A Deadly Business by Lenny Bartulin (pub. Scribe Publications) - this debut crime novel introduces Sydney second-hand bookseller Jack Susko in what looks to be the first book of a new series. I am reading this book at the moment and have been immediately drawn into Jack’s world thanks to Bartulin’s rich descriptive flair. Jack Susko is hired to find every copy of a certain obscure poet’s published books. It’s an unusual request that immediately flags all sorts of questions. The client is rich, the family has issues of some sort and Jack is going to get himself into bog trouble. This is shaping up as a very interesting debut crime novel.

The Silver Dagger by Jame McLean (pub. Longueville Books) - this is a serial killer novel that is set on Queensland’s Gold Coast, so immediately you know that all manner of lowlife criminals are going to be involved. Joseph Crowley is a detective whose job it is to track down a ruthless killer who appears to have only just begun. Reports are that the book is fast-paced and confronting and everything I’ve heard about it is positive. I’ll be reading The Silver Dagger soon and am looking forward to a brutal thriller. I’ll be posting my reading notes here when I’ve read it.

All up, not a bad month for reading Australian crime fiction books with the array centring largely on the police procedural sub-genre. There's a good mix of Australian locations involved here with a couple set in Sydney, one in Melbourne and one in Queensland.