SUTHERLAND, Grant

PERSONAL:

Born in Sydney, Australia; married; two children. Education: Attended United World College of Southeast Asia and London School of Economics.

ADDRESSES:

Home—England. Agent—(literature) Simon Trewin, PFD, Drury House, 34-43 Russell St., London WC2B 5HA, England; fax: 020 7836 9544; (film and television) Charles Walker, PFD, Drury House, 34-43 Russell St., London WC2B 5HA, England; fax: 020 7836 9544.

CAREER:

Writer. Previously worked in the financial services industry.

WRITINGS:

Due Dilligence, Headline Feature (London, England), 1997.

East of the City, Headline Feature (London, England), 1998.

Diplomatic Immunity, Bantam Books (New York, NY), 2001.

The Consignment, Bantam Books (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Grant Sutherland's international thrillers are informed by their author's experiences living in Australia, Southeast Asia, and the United Kingdom. Raised in western Australia, he studied at the United World College of Southeast Asia in Singapore, then at the London School of Economics before returning to Australia to work in finance. He eventually left the marketplace to pursue his interest in writing, publishing the novels Due Diligence and East of the City and settling with his wife and two children in England.

Diplomatic Immunity, Sutherland's first novel published in the United States, takes place in the world of the U.N. headquarters in New York City. When Toshio Hatanaka is murdered, his friend Sam Windrush, a legal affairs deputy, soon becomes involved in the investigation. An avowed pacifist, Hatanaka had worked as a hostage negotiator, and three years earlier, had tried unsuccessfully to secure the release of Windrush's wife from terrorists holding her in Pakistan. She was eventually killed, and after Hatanaka is murdered, Windrush suspects a tie with a bid to make Japan the sixth permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

According to a reviewer commenting on Diplomatic Immunity in Publishers Weekly, "the author uses the rarified world of the U.N. to his advantage in a fast-paced novel that will keep readers engaged." Wrote David Pitt in Booklist, "This is an intelligent, well-constructed thriller that gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at the U.N. and international politics."

The murder of a colleague also occupies a central place in the plot of The Consignment. U.S. Army Ranger Ned Rourke bows to pressure from his wife, Fiona, and leaves the military for a job as a sales representative. But his is no ordinary sales job: working for Haplon Systems, he sells military equipment to clients who range from soldier-of-fortune wannabes to warlords operating in the Third World. When a rival salesman—Dmitri Spandos, who happens to have also been Ned's roommate at West Point—is killed, apparently by a stray bullet at a shooting range, Ned suspects that something sinister is afoot. Dmitri had been involved in an effort by the Department of Defense to investigate arms dealers such as Ned, and now Ned must go back into the military world to solve the mystery of Dmitri's death.

"Rourke, both hero and narrator, is a strong, likeable fellow," wrote Pitt in a review in Booklist. A commentator in Kirkus Reviews described The Consignment as "an interesting and complex tale informed with an oddly macho ethos: a little bit like putting Rambo into a [John] le Carre novel." Wrote Jeff Zaleski in Publishers Weekly, "A strong, cunning writer, Sutherland knows how to plant his characters in complex, threatening situations and then turn them loose as the action escalates."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 2001, David Pitt, review of Diplomatic Immunity, p. 1231; October 1, 2001, Joyce Saricks, review of audio version of Diplomatic Immunity, p. 342; February 15, 2003, David Pitt, review of The Consignment, p. 1056.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2002, review of The Consignment, p. 1800.

Publishers Weekly, March 12, 2001, Peter Cannon, review of Diplomatic Immunity, p. 248; March 24, 2003, Jeff Zaleski, review of The Consignment, p. 50.*