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Mike Locken #2
Viper's Game
Weary of a long list of contract security jobs, and still haunted by the suicide of a young woman on the recent Australia-bound aircraft he was riding as sky marshal, Locken heads for a tranquil tropical island to heal up...... only to find himself caught up in a home-grown terrorist uprising targeting the small international community scattered near the island's seedy main port. Swinging into action, Locken assembles a throw-together team including an ex-Marine with a drug problem, an ageing Aussie combat veteran, and a mix of odd-bods including an obstructive American counsel and a pair of resourceful missionaries with plenty of local savvy.Together, for better or worse, they set off on their obstacle-littered run across the island toward the only airport, first by battered school bus then via rickety narrow-gauge sugar train -- fighting off pursuing terrorist gunmen along the way who want them dead plus a club wielding, cargo-cult hill clan who want their every possession...... to find a worn-out twin-engined Avro, the single remaining aircraft that can transport all of them to safety. That is, if its drunken and nerve-shattered former pilot can remember what he was once made of.
267 pages, Paperback
First published August 5, 2011
About the author
Robert Rostand
10 books5 followersRobert S. Hopkins was the author of twelve books – three non-fiction works and nine novels – under his own name and the pen-name, Robert Rostand.
Of his novels, three became feature-length movies, two from screenplays by Hopkins, both international coproductions, and filmed respectively in France and Hungary. In addition he authored original screenplays for Universal Studios and Warner Brothers. Plus written multiple-episodes for two U.S. television series filmed in Canada, RoboCop and F/X.
Hopkins was born and grew up in a small blue-collar town south of Los Angeles. He graduated from UCLA, not in English but Geography, and earned a Master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma.
Prior to full-time writing he taught in Hawaii at both the Kamehameha Schools and the University of Hawaii, later worked in sales management with the international division of the McGraw-Hill publishing company in New York and South America; had a tour under contract to the Peace Corps assessing staff in the Caribbean and Micronesia, and spent two years in London spinning words in one fashion or another for a design and marketing group.
Being an American living and working in foreign cultures had a profound influence on his fiction and non-fiction. The nine novels are all set in foreign locales known first-hand, most often with an American protagonist caught up in the "spirit of place" as British poet Lawrence Durrell called it.
Of his novels, three became feature-length movies, two from screenplays by Hopkins, both international coproductions, and filmed respectively in France and Hungary. In addition he authored original screenplays for Universal Studios and Warner Brothers. Plus written multiple-episodes for two U.S. television series filmed in Canada, RoboCop and F/X.
Hopkins was born and grew up in a small blue-collar town south of Los Angeles. He graduated from UCLA, not in English but Geography, and earned a Master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma.
Prior to full-time writing he taught in Hawaii at both the Kamehameha Schools and the University of Hawaii, later worked in sales management with the international division of the McGraw-Hill publishing company in New York and South America; had a tour under contract to the Peace Corps assessing staff in the Caribbean and Micronesia, and spent two years in London spinning words in one fashion or another for a design and marketing group.
Being an American living and working in foreign cultures had a profound influence on his fiction and non-fiction. The nine novels are all set in foreign locales known first-hand, most often with an American protagonist caught up in the "spirit of place" as British poet Lawrence Durrell called it.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 12, 2026
A solid follow-up to The Killer Elite. This one is set on a small Portuguese controlled island off the coast of Southwest Africa undergoing a bloody and unexpected revolution. In the early seventies Portugal was attempting to hold onto it's African territories and was fighting uprisings in Angola and Mozambique. The island that Mike Locken is on is fictional, but the story is inspired by actual events.
Locken is trying to get a small group of Europeans, Americans and locales off the island while evading the revolutionaries who are hunting them. In many respects the story reminded me a western. A handful of settlers in hostile territory, running from the Indians and hoping to make it to the train and safety before they are all killed.
As I stated earlier the story is solid and moves along at a rapid pace. Despite its age it's still good read and is an efficient thriller. A solid way to spend a summer day if you don't have anything else going on. I read it approximately twelve years ago when I was still in the U.S. Army. I was doing a twenty-four staff duty rotation and this book helped to pass the time. What more can you ask of a novel?
Locken is trying to get a small group of Europeans, Americans and locales off the island while evading the revolutionaries who are hunting them. In many respects the story reminded me a western. A handful of settlers in hostile territory, running from the Indians and hoping to make it to the train and safety before they are all killed.
As I stated earlier the story is solid and moves along at a rapid pace. Despite its age it's still good read and is an efficient thriller. A solid way to spend a summer day if you don't have anything else going on. I read it approximately twelve years ago when I was still in the U.S. Army. I was doing a twenty-four staff duty rotation and this book helped to pass the time. What more can you ask of a novel?
Displaying 1 of 1 review