Review: A great techno-thriller and a tale of redemption
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 26, 2012
There may be no more exciting, compelling or believable series character in the techno-thriller genre today than author Mark Terry's Dr. Derek Stillwater. Stillwater is a troubleshooter for The Department Of Homeland Security. He's also a tough, no nonsense guy, a bit of a loner, and has little patients for red tape or procedure. Derek doesn't stand on protocol, he crushes its neck under his foot. Especially when it gets in the way of his goal, which is usually tracking down terrorists and foiling their destructive aims. But, he's no superman, and has plenty of human traits that make him as vulnerable as the man next door. But he is relentless and not the guy that terrorists want on their tale.Because of Derek's relentlessness, he has often broken the rules in pursuit of the bad guys and he is not one to follow strict procedures or protocol. This gets him on the bad side of some of the inevitable political and power hungry overseers , associates and subordinates from time to time and throughout the series (The Sins of the Father is book six and there are some short stories too.) but his results over rule those who would stand on decorum. And, speaking of decorum, Derek blurs that line, like a batter erasing the back line of the batters box. On one such occasion, he crossed that line with Russian agent Irina Khournikova.In Sins of the Father, that indiscretion has come back to haunt him. He travels to Russia to check into the death of Irina, who he finds out he fathered a son with. Naturally, just as he often runs into inter-agency rivalries in the U.S., he runs into resistance from Irina's employer, the Russian FSB (their intelligence service). The FSB doesn't want him meddling in  an active investigation, both for fear he'll embarrass them professionally, and that he may expose truths that could prove politically inconvenient if shown to the world. But Derek has never been one to spare the oppositions feelings, or indeed the feelings of agency heads and field agents in his own country.But before he can even begin to investigate Irina's death and cut through the red tape of Russian bureaucracy he finds himself in the middle of a terrorist attack on the U.S. embassy. To further complicate matters, as a favor to the Secretary Of State, he is agrees to investigate the apparent suicide of a U.S. weapons inspector. Along the way he meets the son he never knew he fathered with Irina. But before he can get to know his son, he is kidnapped by a Russian Gang/Terrorist group calling themselves The Red Hands. The Red Hands want Derek to end his investigation into the suicide.If Derek abhors anything more than bureaucratic red tape and politically minded law enforcement and intelligence operatives, it is blackmail. Especially when he is on the receiving end of such threats. Teamed up with FSB Agent Konstantin Nikitinov, he sets out to retrieve his child, and he won't let anything stand in his way. Especially the kidnappers of his child, who have it in mind to over throw the Russian government.Derek Stillwater took the old adage, "fight fire with fire" to heart. He and Nikitinov start their own reign of terror on the Red Hands giving them way more than they bargained for. As the story barrels towards the climax, like an M1 tank over a sand dune, Derek and Konstantin run rough-shod over criminals and officials on both sides.One thing the reader can be sure of when he cracks open a Mark Terry Book is that it will be solidly crafted, well researched, topical and there will be plenty of relentless action. Once Derek Stillwater is on the trail, the plot will move as fast as a Formula One racer. Terry's books and stories exhibit the cream of the crop of the writers craft. There are no holes in the plot. The characters are extremely real and he makes them leap off the page. They each will develop a separate voice in the readers mind. His sense of place is conveyed as if written by the best travel writer. And, almost presciently, he has a knack for picking stories that end up being topical and in the news when the book reaches print. It almost seems as if his stories could be subtitled The Story Behind The Story on a nightly news broadcast. And after six novels one is a  a novella to be clear), and numerous short stories it becomes apparent that this is no accident or stroke of good luck. The man just seems to have his fingers on the pulse of world events. Either that or he has some inside source.