Military

I blamed Chris Allen for a lot of things whilst I was reading this book. Dog's were left hoping for games and walks. Not my fault. Cat's balefully batted toys on sticks with nobody holding onto the other end. Nothing to do with me. Pet pigs resorted to throwing their food bowls around in the air because their giant tennis ball wouldn't throw itself. Who me? It was actually rather too easy to ignore all but the bare essentials around the place when deep in the second INTREPID book - HUNTER.

As in the first book, and as you'd expect of this format, the central character Alex Morgan is a minor superhero. His major superpower appears to be the ability to shrug off levels of physical damage that would have the normal person at least mutter OUCH quite a lot, if not demand a good long lie down in the closest Intensive Care facility. It's also a given that Morgan will be a bit of a loner, not necessarily looking for love but quite happy to take it if offered. So, you probably get the idea, we are talking high energy action, a fair amount of physical prowess and a hefty bit of romantic interest.

Whilst there are a lot of elements to the plot that aren't that unexpected, setting the action within the remit of the Hague Court and the Serbian conflict is an interesting twist, and it provided some options for insight into some of the brutality of that conflict. It also created a very realistic scenario for INTREPID to be operating in (the organisation that Alex Morgan works for).

In a slight difference from the first book, the romantic interest here is more prevalent at the end which might appeal to some readers a little more, and whilst the level of action was as strong, the punishment that Morgan endures did seem to be much more extreme. This time out, the plot seemed surprisingly feasible, even the slightly James Bondish gizmos and gadgets deployed at points. What works the most is undoubtedly the action scenes though. They are incredibly good, and even if you do, at times, think there is no way Morgan should be able survive this, you really don't doubt one little bit that he does. You don't mind when he prevails against everything, when he catches all the baddies, deploys whatever gizmo the INTREPID version of Q has magic'd out of the ether and somehow you don't even mind so much when it looks like he might even get the girl.

High-paced, high-octane, high-entertainment fun, the INTREPID series is now available from http://momentumbooks.com.au/books/hunter/ Momentum books. Which is very good news.

I'm starting to wonder if it's become mandatory for ex-SAS or other special forces members to leave active duty and write books. It seems that there are a lot of options for this sort of informed thriller style book, but you'll need to be partial to something that includes a military theme somewhere.

KILLING FOR THE COMPANY has, as it's first military connection, an ex-SAS member, Chet Freeman, invalided out, now working in anti-bugging and surveillance on contract for a major American corporation. Long story short, he catches Suze McArthur, a peace campaigner, eavesdropping on a meeting between corporation executives and the British Prime Minister, Alistair Stratton, that seems to be talking about a personal financial incentive for the Prime Minister to be take his country into the Gulf War.

The opening action takes the reader back 10 years, leaping forward to the current as the cover-up for that eavesdropping proves deadly, even after all these years. The Prime Minister (nobody's going to earn a gold star for working out who it's based on) is now a Middle East peace envoy and in the second military connection, Freeman's mate and special services, close protection agent Luke Mercer is in the action. Firstly he's contacted by McArthur asking for his help, secondly as he's assigned to get Stratton into Gaza.

The setup is absolutely rapidfire, and totally no holds barred. Once the baddies and the goodies are all sorted out though, you're going to need to fire up that suspension of disbelief and keep it operating at tip top condition. You're also going to need a little bit of a thick skin (actually you're probably going to need that from the outset). After all, there's "getting" the idea that sometimes you have to dehumanise the opposition to be an effective fighter, and then there's some very confrontational terminology and attitudes. Readers are also going to have to be comfortable with the idea that sometimes bad things happen - very very bad things.

I've never read anything else from this author, and I've never seen any of the television programs that he's been connected with, so I've no idea how this book sits in terms of his other work. Whilst this was a very action packed thriller, particularly in the early stages, and there's some good and some very surprising twists in the lives of the characters. There are some rather formulaic aspects, a bit of a dodgy plot, and for some reason, that dehumanising that really stuck out. There's also that idea that because you can work out who the high-profile figure is, you just can't shake the feeling that there could be a bit of political statement going on. Perhaps if the connection to the Prime Minister hadn't been quite so obvious, the plot might have been slightly more believable. If you don't care about that, and you don't mind your plots wobbling a bit under the pressure of the action, KILLING FOR THE COMPANY would definitely be one of those high-action summer reading type thrillers.

If, like me, you grew up on a diet of Len Deighton, Robert Ludlum and John Le Carre novels, there is a chance you're a bit of a fan of fast paced, military, espionage style novels.  DEFENDER OF THE FAITH is a recent entry in the what is rapidly becoming a large pool of choice for Australian readers.  

Set within our geographical and political sphere, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH introduces readers to Alex Morgan, special forces operative, good bloke, and all round bit of a hero.  The action in this book is really very realistic, and it's not difficult to believe highly informed by the author's own background.  There are some good, albeit somewhat expected characterisations, right down to the beautiful blonde love interest, the strong jawed, very Australian main character, and a series of nicely evil villains lead by a mysterious, excellent at disguises archetypal baddy type, all glowering evil genius and callous malevolence.

As this is a thriller there are some givens that readers must expect.  A bit of energiser bunniness in the main character, winged frequently but never downed.  There was a love story between the two main characters, and of course there was a level of physical attractiveness about them both, although I'm happy to report there were no signs of hair flicking and very little gratuitous comment on beautiful eyes and glorious legs...  

What makes a thriller work, or not work, is how these clichés are delivered.  In the case of DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, mostly everything worked, the plot was believable without the need to park your disbelief around the back and hide the keys; the love story wasn't too thickly applied, and whilst there was a bit of inexplicable jeopardy for all players, it did all gel.  Maybe there are points where the plot got a little vague, but the action elements held up, and the pace certainly didn't let go.

Definitely something on the entertaining side, the only thing that was missing when I read DEFENDER OF THE FAITH was the box of chocolates and deck chair that you'd normally drag out at Christmas to sit down and be thoroughly and comprehensively entertained by a good espionage thriller.

DEFENDER OF THE FAITH is available in various formats - check out the website for details:  http://defenderofthefaith.com.au/

When it comes to writing military intelligence, covert operation styled thrillers there have been some particularly well known authors over the years.  Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton come to mind immediately.  Until Mark Abernethy created Alan (Mac) McQueen, there have been fewer options to choose from set in this part of the world, seen from an Australian perspective.  Mac is our super-spy, the covert operative who knows everyone, works in our geographical region, is fearless in pursuit of the goal of whatever operation he's sent on, and frighteningly able to land himself in extremely deep water at just about every outing.

COUNTER ATTACK finds him dispatched to Singapore to oversee just such a covert mission.  Which goes pear-shaped.  Which takes Mac from there to Saigon, and onto the former killing fields of Cambodia, all the while dodging the bad guys, and the good guys (they are somehow interchangeable yet again).  Along the way he meets up with new allies, some old compatriots and uses every ounce of his nous, guile, guts and glory to avoid yet another world-wide crisis.

The fourth in the Alan McQueen series, these books are exactly what the covers are trying to tell potential readers.  Big action, loud explosions, much rushing about, Mac-jep (well everyone-jep really), adrenaline fuelled, maniacal action, badder than bad baddies and a resolution by the skin of the world's teeth.  We're talking thrillers here - we're definitely not talking nuanced and considered psychological analysis, although Mac isn't just an Energiser Bunny about everything.  He has a wife, children, people he cares about, people he feels guilty about, people who can make him doubt himself, feel responsible.  He is, however, refreshingly bullet-proof for a man of his age.

Aside from the character of Mac who is not just a man's man, he's dangerously close to a bit of a SNAG sometimes, part of the attraction of these books is that the action does take place in our region.  The settings are moving around from book to book, throughout Asia, backwards and forwards out of Canberra - the politics, the military, the relationships with our immediate neighbours are woven into the action in the books in what feels like a a very realistic manner.  There's a fair bit of tongue in cheek dialogue along the way, as well as quite a bit of blokey talk which personally I found quite realistic, but which could provide an unexpected tone for anybody who thinks that Australian's under pressure are all going to sound like Crocodile Dundee....

I've always been a fan of the Mac series.  Whilst they are exactly what they promise to be - big, bold, loud, mad, bad and slightly out of control, there's a little bit more than that.  There are some nice little human touches, there's more than just Mac in the character line up and then there's the localised settings which are the icing on the cake.  Even with the reoccurring character set, you wouldn't have to have read the earlier books in the series to dive into COUNTER ATTACK.  But summer's on the way and these are perfect lazy summer day reads - so why not catch up with Mac in the earlier books and really get an idea of where he's coming from?