Convinced of his worthlessness, Vin is surprised when summoned to the office of Major General Winifred Gruyere. The crusty female officer wants Vin to look into the death of General Abraham Scott who was killed when his glider crashed on a recreational flight in Germany. Vin is just as testy with Gruyere as she is with him, but she insists that he has been especially selected for this task by Vice President Jefferson Cutter to lead the investigation.

An Air Force officer who has a fear of flying is a man in desperate need of a career change, but Cooper is yet to have accomplished this deed. He survives a rocky trip to Germany and arrives at Ramstein, his base of operations in Germany. He is to be assisted in his investigation by Special Agent Anna Masters, which considering his relations with the fairer sex of late does not lift his spirits at all. For her part, Masters is not much impressed by Cooper who in addition to his gruff manner is badly in need of a shower and a shave. She suggests he deal with his physical appearance before they meet with their superior, General von Koeppen. Cooper ignores her suggestion in favor of getting as much background on the case as possible prior to the scheduled meeting.

Though it is immediately obvious to both Cooper and Masters that the accident that killed Scott was not an accident, the reason for the general’s death is much more obscure and complicated. Both investigators are eager to discover what Scott’s death really entailed, but are not at all thrilled to work with each other on the case. Any attempt to be cooperative on one side is met with a rebuff on the other until their lives are really placed in each other’s hands.

The Death Trust is Australian author David Rollins’ first work to be published in the United States. Mr. Rollins is well informed about the US Military and his command of American English, American culture and mannerisms is excellent. That being said, I cannot comment on his knowledge of the settings and culture of the countries in which much of the action in the novel takes place. In his acknowledgements, he admits he has never been to Iraq and makes no mention of personal experience with Germany, Afghanistan, or Latvia which also figure prominently in the novel.

As befitting a thriller, The Death Trust relies heavily on short, uncomplicated dialogue, violent action scenes complete with vivid descriptions involving blood and gore, and discussions of different weaponry and aircraft. The novel reads quickly with its short chapters, although it is difficult to keep track of the actual chronological time involved. If, as it seems, everything happens in just a few short days or weeks then the main protagonist is, indeed, an exceptional guy. He survives numerous physical encounters with people bent on his destruction, yet soldiers on, including enduring a painful toothache. I realize this is an adventure novel, but just how much can the human body endure and still have a brain which can entertain any thought beyond the fact that the body to which it belongs in serious pain? In addition, Cooper begins the novel as a less than perfect specimen, having spent the greater portion of the previous year as an alcoholic.

Although the focus of thrillers is action not characters, the reader gets little sense of who the main characters are beyond a stereotypical façade. Even accepting them as they are, there is inconsistency. In the beginning of the book, General Gruyere cannot complete a sentence without uttering at least one profanity and her vocabulary is not much larger than the average third grader. At the end of the novel, she is much more refined and articulate, though the actual chronological time is quite short. I also found myself more than a little annoyed by the author’s attempt to render German accented English into incorrectly spelled words.

The basic thrust of the novel which involves conspiracies of world altering proportions may appeal to staunch advocates of the thriller subgenre. If one can accept the author’s premise that such conspiracies do exist, there is ample pause for thought. The average person who is honest and does his job to the best of his ability may be better off not thinking about what unscrupulous people in positions of power could be capable of doing.

--Andy Plonka