The Death Trust » (Reprint)

David Rollins is a former advertising creative director who lives in Sydney, Australia. He is the author of The Death Trust and Knife Edge, both international bestsellers. Brilliance Audio and Bantam Books will publish Knife Edge in 2008.

Amid the dust, death, and chaos of Iraq, an American soldier on a routine patrol is killed by an unseen enemy. It’s a tragedy but not a crime - until it’s linked to the bizarre death of a decorated four-star general who happens to be the dead man’s father…and the son-in-law of history’s most feared and powerful U.S. vice president.

Major Vin Cooper of Air Force Special Investigations is the kind of loose cannon no commanding officer can completely control…or survive without. Cooper’s a man whose capacity to absorb grief is matched only by his ability to dish it out. And this case - which will be either his most important or his last - has plenty of both.

Scarred by battle and a recent divorce, Cooper answers to no one but his own tough-as-nails female general. She knows there’s no one as relentless, as insubordinate, and as effective in prying out the truth as Cooper - no matter where it leads or who it angers.

Reluctantly paired with Special Agent Anna Masters, Cooper begins his search at the scene of a suspicious crash at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. There they uncover a trail of inexplicable “accidental” deaths that leads from the war-torn streets of Baghdad to sex slavery in Latvia and a marriage that began in the White House Rose Garden and disintegrated into bitterness and infidelity. And with every step they take, Cooper and Masters come closer to the shocking truth about the biggest and most murderous lie of all.

Publishers Weekly

Aussie author Rollins's first novel is a fast-moving, funny thriller with a smart-aleck hero who faces death and worse with a quip on his lips. Military special investigator Maj. Vincent Cooper bounds around the world, dodging death while searching for the reason a four-star general and his son were murdered-a nifty bit of evil that goes all the way to the White House-and encounters grouchy Germans, ruthless and sexy Russians, world-weary Italians, stoned Canadians and, not surprisingly, heroic Australians. The accents, attitudes and genders pose no problem for Foster, who handles them with brisk efficiency. He understands that, with a yarn involving a protagonist who suffers beatings, bullets and broken bones, but keeps plugging away at a global conspiracy with more layers than an artichoke, to pause for an elaborate shift in accent is to risk close scrutiny of the story. Instead, with subtle vocal shifts he's able to set a breathless pace, keeping the listener on board the roller coaster until it comes to a complete, satisfying stop. Simultaneous release with the Bantam hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 13). (Sept.)