Scott, Trevor

views updated

SCOTT, Trevor

PERSONAL: Married; children: two sons. Education: University of Minnesota, B.A.; North Michigan University, M.A.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Salvo Press, P.O. Box 9095, Bend, OR 97708.

CAREER: Writer. Military service: U.S. Navy, weapons expert; U.S. Air Force, captain, stationed in Germany with a tactical missile unit.

AWARDS, HONORS: Good Conduct Medal and Meritorious Unit Commendation, both U.S. Navy; Commendation Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster, Achievement Medal, Expert Marksman, National Defense Service Medal, all U.S. Air Force; German Silver Schutzenschnur; sharpshooter award, National Rifle Association.

WRITINGS:

Fatal Network ("Jake Adams" series), Salvo Press (Bend, OR), 1998.

Extreme Faction ("Jake Adams" series), Salvo Press (Bend, OR), 1999.

The Dolomite Solution ("Jake Adams" series), Salvo Press (Bend, OR), 2000.

Hypershot, Salvo Press (Bend, OR), 2001.

Strong Conviction, Salvo Press (Bend, OR), 2002.

The Dawn of Midnight, Salvo Press (Bend, OR), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS: Trevor Scott draws on his military training and weapons expertise in writing his thrillers, including the "Jake Adams" series. Jake, a former CIA officer, becomes involved in a conspiracy in which Air Force technology is in jeopardy in Fatal Network. In Extreme Faction, Jake is back, hired by a Portland, Oregon company to attend an agricultural conference in the Ukraine in a security capacity. An internationally recognized expert on chemical and biological weapons is murdered, and Jake pursues his killer. At the same time, a group of terrorists poison everyone at a chemical disposal facility on a tiny Pacific island and steal a cluster bomb containing nerve gas. The plot involves agents from the United States, Russia, Israel, and England. Booklist's Ilene Cooper remarked that readers seeking "an alternative to Clancy will find Scott a somewhat smaller-scale but perhaps even more authentic alternative."

Jake finds himself traveling from Italy to Austria to Rhode Island in The Dolomite Solution. Two Italian scientists have found the DNA link to heart disease which makes them clear candidates for the Nobel Prize. They are about to take their findings public in cooperation with an Austrian biotech company, but the scientists are soon threatened by those who would take the discovery for their own. After one of the scientists is killed, Jake must find the culprits and prevent them from stealing the cure.

Hypershot features protagonist Chad Hunter, a weapons designer who is hired by Warfield Arms, a Denver weapons manufacturer that wants Chad to convince a Germany company to partner with them. The Germans have developed a weapon that is so sophisticated and accurate that it is sure to be the standard in hand-held rifles, especially with a new scope designed by American optics engineer Frank Baldwin. Chad must convince Frank to accompany him to Germany with the sweet deal, but in doing so, they could both become targets.

Strong Conviction introduces journalist Trent Strong, who has returned home to Minnesota after working for ten years as an overseas investigative reporter for a Chicago newspaper. Back in his small, lakefront community, Trent looks forward to a more peaceful life, but after only one week a friend asks him to look into the pollution of a trout stream by the Mammoth Paper Mill, which employs half the workers in the town. When a woman is killed in a local motel, Trent speculates that the two are connected, and other murders soon follow. With so many having a stake in the continued operation of the mill, including the sheriff, a county attorney, and other people Trent knows from his past, he wonders if returning home had been such a good idea after all. Library Journal's Rex Klett felt that Strong Conviction has "regional interest."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 1999, Ilene Cooper, review of Extreme Faction, p. 1485.

Library Journal, August, 2002, Rex Klett, review of Strong Conviction, p. 150.*

More From encyclopedia.com