The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Brimstone is the first book in a new series of military thrillers by Russel Hutchings. Hutchings, a former member of the Australian SAS, is now writing fiction about the dark world of John Deveraux, an SAS soldier on loan to the Australian Security and Intelligence Service (ASIS). Deveraux’s life is a violent one: we first meet him on an infiltration mission as he attempts to assassinate a high-ranking member of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in 1991. The mission, a partial success, has long-lasting implications and Deveraux finds himself drawn in to a larger conspiracy involving gemstone-smuggling, heroin production and the Russian mafia. Brimstone is the first volume in the Mantra 6 series, soon to be followed by Nitrate and Chilli, and is currently in development to be filmed on the Gold Coast.
There can be no doubt of Hutchings’ knowledge of his subject, and this authenticity jumps out from every page. His descriptions of clandestine tactics and weaponry feel well informed and real. The military procedure is as correct as it can be, and the references to operational procedure ring true. Pleasingly his descriptions of exotic Thailand and Cambodia feel quite tactile; they include full of sights, sounds and scents, and as Deveraux walks the mean streets the reader could be forgiven for feeling as though they were there with him.
Hutchings’ prose is sharp and concise, as it needs to be for the many action sequences the book contains, propelling the action with the right amount of dialogue and description. The story is, for once in this genre, exactly the length it needs to be. The action sequences flow naturally from one to the next without becoming bogged down in the necessary descriptions of spy craft and weaponry. There are few extraneous characters, and Hutchings does not dwell on Deveraux’s personal past, letting the reader see just enough to realise that he is human. Other more established authors could well take note of this.
That said, the book would benefit from a thorough edit. The decision to place the story in 1991 feels like a late one, as several times the characters do anachronistic things—paying $8 for a cup of tea, for example, or seeing a Burger King in Thailand (they first opened there in 2000).
But the proof of the pudding is, as they say, in the eating. In Brimstone, Russel Hutchings has given us a fine meal indeed.
Reviewed by DC White
Distributed by: Big Sky Publishing
Released: December 2021
RRP: $29.99
This review is the opinion of the reviewer and not Glam Adelaide.
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