The Death Trust

Vin Cooper #1

by David Rollins

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.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Military Fiction, Crime, Suspense, Espionage

11 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Hiya, I'm a fiction author and I live in Sydney, Australia. I guess my best-known work is the series featuring Vin Cooper, a special agent in the United States Air Force OSI.

I have published eleven novels, which most recently includes the seventh novel in the Cooper series, the highly controversial KINGDOM COME.

I've recently discovered the joys of Substack. Come and take a look at davidrollins@substack.com where I'm also serializing BLOOD & EMPIRE, the sequel to FIELD OF MARS.

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The investigation of the sniper death of a soldier whose Father in law just happens to be linked to the death of a four star general, who also just happened to be the dead soldier's father and the son in law of the Vice President leads to a vast conspiracy.

Not bad, but not exactly memorable.

[Janet Newport · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for recommending this author/book.
I've really been missing Brian Haig's Sean Drummond. Part of me also wants Lee Child to write Jack Reacher stories faster (the saner side of me is afraid of that...doesn't want him to turn into James Patterson). In The Death Trust, Vin Cooper combines the best of both.

WARNING for future readers: Keep a bottle of aspirin handy. The action is non-stop. I ached all over just reading about the gunshots, bomb blasts, street brawls and fist fights....not to mention a whole lot of air flights via military transport planes and road trips in military vehicles (neither of which are constructed with passenger comfort in mind). While Vin does not quite display the introspection of Sean Drummond, he still manages to take the moral high ground. His skills nearly equal Jack Reacher's.

I loved the conspiracy within the conspiracy. Bad guys turning into good guys then back into bad guys or maybe not. The plot spins and twists and I'm still dizzy 3 days after finishing the book. I definitely plan on reading more of this author/character as soon as my stomach settles down.

Thank you again Goodreads for this recommendation.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books you thought you read before but fortunately, had not. My low expectations were quickly altered with an investigation of the supposedly accidental death of an Air Force 4 star general in a gliding accident in Germany. Heading up the investigation is Air Force Major Vin Cooper, a tough, smart and very witty detective assisted by the equally smart and lovely Major Anna Masters. Complication matters , the General's son, a Marine Sgt. serving in Iraq, was killed in under dubious circumstances and the rest of his squad have all died by apparent coincidental accidents.

Together, Cooper and Masters desperately try to understand what's behind the death count while being attacked by Special Forces caliber assassins trying to silence them before the can unravel and stop the very shadowy conspiracy.

An excellent, fast paced, fun read for those interested in the unique aspects of military crime fiction and charismatic detectives with sarcastic wit and style...........Ed

[Chuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vin Cooper Is an Air Force Major and Special Agent in the Office of Special Investigations. We meet him as he awakes one morning with a giant hangover before being summoned by his commanding general. An Air Force General commanding the Ramstein Air Base in Germany has died in the crash of his personal sailplane. The crash is deemed suspicious and Vin is assigned to investigate it. As he conducts his investigation he finds a whole line of suspicious deaths, all of which are labeled accidental. The plot is interesting and well planned but I have an idiosyncrasy; I want to like my heroes personally and I didn't like Vin. He is arrogant, snotty and flip. There was a promo statement on the cover written by Nelson DeMille attesting to the books "strong characters" that I didn't agree with. Vin Cooper's character could, and perhaps was, patterned after DeMille's recurring character, John Corey, whom I also don't like.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exciting thriller, somewhat over the top, but a fun read that moves well. Engaging characters, a couple cartoonish, but all coming together to keep things interesting.

[David Rollins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Funny, dark, unpredictable and satisfying.

[Harry Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give this book 3.5 stars. Story opens with OSI officer Major Vin Cooper, recently divorced, waking up from a massive hangover only to be given an assignment to investigate the death in a gliding accident of the commanding officer, a 4-star general, of the NATO Ramstein AFB. He's paired with a local OSI officer, Major Anna Masters, who is not impressed with Vin Cooper to say the least. Actually she feels he's stepping on her turf. From here things start to speed up. Evidence is found that the glider was tampered with, causing it to crash. They discover that the general's son was KIA in Iraq & that the general had some files hidden behind an impregnable firewall on a personal laptop. While in Iraq to investigate the son's death, some unknown Special Force-type assailants try to kill them & almost succeed. Once back at Ramstein, they discover that the general was doing a private investigation of some suspicious NATO flights out of Riga Latvia. & some shadowy conspiracy involving the sale of US armaments.

Some characters are not as well written & the plot starts to get a little far-fetched but this is a good fast paced read.

[Dan Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

"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.

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."

[Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vincent (Vin) Cooper is celebrating his divorce as the book opens. I use celebrate rather loosely. His idea of celebrating included months of debauched boozing. He’s a U.S. Air Force investigator, and a shadowy group pick him to investigate the death of an Air force general at Germany’s Ramstein Air Force Base. His critics deem him barely fit to serve as the book opens, and the shadowy group who wants its secrets kept believe he will fail to find answers.

But their beliefs are grossly misguided. He teams up with Special Agent Anna Masters to uncover a conspiracy of shocking breadth and depth.

There are two sex scenes I could have done without, but they were mercifully brief. Otherwise, this is a compelling twisty book that doesn’t seem to have bona fide slow spots, and the narration is outstanding.

[Martin Beare · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first of the Vin Cooper series. Doesn't disappoint and can be read out of order from the others. Vin Cooper is like an Australian version of Jack Reacher, good brawler, finds himself in hot spots, gets injured, survivor, gets in trouble with his boss, then gets results. Excellent holiday reading

[Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

funny and exciting

[Frank Liska · Rating 4 out of 5]

First time for me with this author. I was pleasantly surprised with this Goodreads recommendation for me. Good plot with multiple layers and storylines.

[Asterope · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad. For the most part, I enjoyed the story and the main characters.

There were only two things that rubbed me the wrong way. Vin Cooper and his interactions with Varvara and Katarinya. Though each for different reasons.

1. Varvara. I couldn't help but pause at the TSTL moment Vin had when Varvara came to seduce him in his hotel. Here's a woman that was at the least a stripper and at the most a prostitute/sex slave - and it's not like women in that position can demand their clients use condoms. He knew this. In fact, much of it was revealed pre-sex. Yet, this man, who I took to be pretty smart, had unprotected sex with this woman, who for all he knows, given her past, had who knows what and how many STDs. There is no mention of protection, just "I found my way inside her." I paused after that scene, because it didn't really match my view of the hero. I thought he was smarter than that. And I get that this is fiction, but it's set in the real world, with real life issues and consequences. I don't expect to be hit over the head with safe sex in every book, but I'd hope the hero/ine would practice it when having sex with someone like Varvara, at the least. It could have very easily been worked into the story, with a sentence, that protection was going used. "She ripped open the package and slipped the condom over me before I found my way inside her." - or something like that. See, it's easy!

2. Katarinya. She raped him, basically. He was still high on the sedative he was given, was having an erotic dream (which was a side effect, apparently, of the drug), thinking it was Anna doing the things to him. He thought it was a dream, a fantasy, but it wasn't, not totally. Because Kararinya was under his sheets doing those things, which were then filtered as a dream to his brain (like when you have to pee IRL and like dream of peeing, or whatever). He wakes up, still confused and groggy - he has no clue what's going on. And then this happened:

"A head popped up from under the covers and a warm body climbed on top of me. She straddled me and I entered her involuntarily as her legs wrapped around me and she began to move her hips...This was not what I wanted, or rather, who I wanted. I was completely disoriented. Had everything been a dream?

He threw her off him before any actual sex happened, but that doesn't matter, it's still an issue. In my state, any sort of penetration is considered rape, there doesn't have to be an orgasm or completion of one party.Imagine if it was the opposite. A woman, drugged and out of it, a man doing things to arouse her while she's out of it, and then just as she opens her eyes, he enters her. People would say that's rape - because it is! He was raped, IMO. And again, sexual contact with sex workers and no-condom. Risky, risky business, though in this case, unlike with Varvara, it wasn't his fault. I don't like that it was treated so casually, this assault, because that's what I really is. He was drugged, unable to consent. Hell, he even, in narrative made it very clear he didn't want that to occur and wouldn't have chosen to do that if he was able to choose. So yeah. That didn't please me. It was also rather unnecessary, that whole scene. It could have stood with him dream/fantasizing that it was Anna and leave it at that. The whole scene with Katarinya didn't add anything to the plot.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Death Trust”, if it were a film, would be a solid B-movie. The plot is taut and no scene or dialogue is wasted, and the best parts of the book are the main characters. We’re introduced to the internal affairs department of the United States Air Force, and one of its agents, Major Vin Cooper; in the first chapter of the book, he’s nursing a fierce hangover when given a plum assignment from his commanding officer, nicknamed “the big cheese” (she’s a general and her surname is Gruyere). He’s to travel to Germany to investigate the deaths of a decorated four-star general whose son was recently killed in combat in Iraq.

Cooper is a deadpan snarker through most of the book, although he is a capable and intelligent agent. He’s paired with Special Agent Anna Masters, who dislikes him almost on sight. They uncover a trail of inexplicable “accidental” deaths that are somehow all linked together. The plot tends to go off the rails towards the end, when a grand governmental conspiracy is revealed, but otherwise the book is a great, fun read.

Rollins is a great action writer and I was reminded of the fight scenes in Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels while reading this book. Cooper and Masters and their belligerent sexual tension fuel the book for the most part, and I really want to read the next book in the series, “Knife Edge.”

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every once in a while a conspiracy theory political thriller seems to hit the spot. Major Vin Cooper, a newly divorced USAF Special Investigator suffering flashbacks from Afghanistan, is sent to Germany to investigate the death of a 4 star general killed in a gliding accident. Or was it an accident? Turns out there are questions about the death, and about the death in Iraq of the general's son a year earlier. The descriptions of the scenes in Afghanistan and Iraq, and at the NATO base in Ramstein are well done. Plot moves quickly, interesting characters. A good hammock book.

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

And here I was thinking I was in for another tedious flag-waving bit of neo-con porn a la Vince Flynn-made me think about passing on this book. Glad I read it because I actually found a thriller with a great set of characters that are nothing like Mitch Krapp.
Was a bit of a stretch believing the motivation behind the crimes in this novel but a good read all the same.

Looking forward to reading the other two books in the series.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book in the Vin Cooper series which I discovered with the third or fourth book Hard Rain. Cooper is an OSI officer for the air force doing a murder investigation of a 4 star in Germany. It is a good mystery with Cooper's usual sass. It introduces Anne Masters but not well. The characters are not yet unique which comes later. The plot is good with enough action and mystery mixed in it. Overall a good start to the series, but not quite as good as the later book.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A military investigator Vin Cooper looks into the Murder of an Air Force general and his son...Cooper has the cockiness and skills of both Brian Haig's Sean Drummond and DeMille's Paul Brenner...a fun read, but I get a little tired of the Deus Ex Machina plot device of the government/industrial conspiracies of some of these novels...it would have been 4 stars if it wasn't for that

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The death of a U.S. Air Force General pulls investigator Vin Cooper into something that may be more than he bargained for. Lots of action with a good story line to carry the mystery makes this a very good book. For those interested in military conspiracy novels this one is a hit. I am already looking forward to book #2.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a pleasant surprise. Many twists and turns and a great ending. I now will read the whole series, Vin Cooper is a hard hitting main character that will carry many more novels in the future. If you like series as I do you could do far worse. I urge you to give David Rollins a chance to win your loyalty as a reader.

[Vince Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clearly a work of fiction! Really? A four star general leading AFOSI? OSI only gets one stars in charge. Getting to go on all those TDYs without having to spend several mindless hours in DTS? I wish I could live in that world. Special Agent Vincent Cooper? No one in the history of time with that name would ever be given Special Agent credentials.

Note: review contains sarcasm

[Fabian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first three quarters of this book were absolutely fantastic - witty, exciting, tense. Unfortunately, the author decided to take the plot way too far off the deep end towards the conclusion of the book, to the point that the last few chapters were actually painful to read.

[Mike Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent story told well. Love the main characters. The plot was complicated and mysterious enough to keep me going. The paranoid undercurrent carried the pace well. I liked it. Ready to read the next one. Love these kind of tough guy stories with strong, human characters.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably should have given it a 3, but the action was great. The main character was just a bit too smart alecky and had too many cheesy one-liners. If those were cut down considerably, then it would've been a 5 for me.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great action. I read through it very quickly. I have the next in the series on my to read list. I found the main character, Vin Cooper, to be realsitic and not over the top. But some may find his personal problems too cliche.

[Adz · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second half of this book stepped it up to high gear and continually gained momentum at a cracking pace. A good easy read and quite enjoyable. Looking forward to the next installment of Vin Cooper!

[james · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about a US Air Force investigation into the accidental death of a 4-star general. Non-stop action and adventure makes this a real page-turner. Oddly, it's by an Australian author.

[juice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a couple of his other books, and they were OK, but this is a whole lot better. It's like he'd read all of Nelson de Mille's books before writing this one.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book read like a made-for-TV movie. Each chapter left you on a cliffhanger or filled in one more piece of the overall mystery.

[Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Premise is good; the strategy was decent, could be a little better.