Customer Reviews

Redcap

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The joy of Brian Callison books, is the feeling you get of reading about real characters and real reactions, with real language. This book is no exception.
The story is in two parts, revolving around Staff Sergeant Walker (a redcap, which is a military policeman) and his encounters with the unhinged Major Steadman - the Amazon synopsis sums it up well.
It is the writing which sets Callison apart - Walker speaks (and thinks) in an authentic colloquial style, even interrupting his own thoughts. There is humour, of the black and dry kind, and the action scenes are gripping and breathless, with no detail unspared when things get gory. However, behind the façade of salty guy-next-door language, is a well structured story which is all about characters and their evolution. The final confrontation is virtually all verbal and yet is one of the most gripping endings in recent memory.
Modern day thriller writers could learn a lot from Callison, who imbues hard-bitten characters with warmth, callousness, fear and other emotions, in much more real proportions that heroes are normally imbued with.
Regular readers of Callison will not be disappointed - this is better than his last couple of books. New readers will enjoy I am sure, but it is an odd introduction to an author who almost always sets his stories at sea. Buy it and read it - but for new readers I suggest starting with `A Flock of Ships' and `The Sextant', both modern day descriptive classics of war at sea.