The Tin Men
A Novel
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4.3 • 499 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
At a top-secret Army training facility in the Mojave Desert, Special Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor plunge into a deadly web of military intrigue, AI technology, and robot soldiers as they unravel the shocking murder of a senior scientist in this gripping thriller from New York Times bestselling authors Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille.
Army CID Special Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor team up for their toughest assignment yet as they are dispatched to Camp Hayden to investigate the death of Major Roger Ames, the chief scientist in charge of the top-secret war games being conducted between a platoon of Army Rangers and a fleet of “lethal autonomous weapons.” Brodie and Taylor find themselves at ground zero of the next generation of warfare, and must untangle the complex web of alliances, animosities, and secret agendas among the men and women of the isolated facility.
In a place cut off from the world and exposed to the harsh desert elements, everyone is a suspect—from the zealous camp commander who pushes his men to the limit, to the Rangers slipping into madness due to isolation, grueling training, and rampant abuse of performance-enhancing drugs, to the late Major Ames’s own research colleagues. Brodie and Taylor must uncover layers of deception to find the hidden hand behind the murder of Major Ames, and the real purpose of the activities at Camp Hayden and its terrifying arsenal of next-generation weapons.
This gripping thriller, the final novel from the legendary Nelson DeMille, coauthored with his son Alex DeMille, is a masterful blend of suspense and cutting-edge technology. It is a page-turning and thought-provoking exploration of the implications of AI in modern warfare and is a must-read for fans of military thrillers.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Agents hunt for a killer robot—or the human behind it—in this intense thriller. When a scientist dies at the hands of a war machine, the army assigns maverick investigators Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor. Locked down at a top-secret base in the Mojave, they must discover whether the murderer is flesh and blood or something out of a dystopian nightmare. Best-selling author Nelson DeMille passed away in 2024, and his son Alex has taken the helm of this series, delivering a sci-fi-tinged tour de force. The authors create a claustrophobic atmosphere in which just about everyone has a motive. Taylor and Brodie race to separate fact from science fiction before the powder keg of tweaked-out soldiers, corporate cover-ups, and suspicious COs finally explodes.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Seven-foot-tall killer robots known as D-17s malfunction during military testing in the Mojave Desert and crush the skull of an Army computer scientist in the rip-roaring latest collaboration between Nelson DeMille, who died in 2024, and his son, Alex (after Blood Lines). Before the head-smashing incident, a Ranger regiment had been supplying troops for training battles with the robots, but the so-called "tin men" proved faster and more capable than their human counterparts, beating the soldiers in every simulation. Superstar Army criminal investigators Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor are assigned to figure out what went wrong with the futuristic machines and whether it might indicate a dangerous flaw in their software. Brodie and Taylor are characteristically unrelenting in their probe, turning up evidence that the D-17s have developed capabilities that even their inventors and programmers don't know about, which could prove disastrous to U.S. military operations. The DeMilles kick the action into high gear early on and don't let up until they arrive at an exhilarating clash between a 60-robot contingent and terrified human forces. This is liable to keep readers up all night. Agents: Sloan Harris and Jennifer Joel, CAA.
Customer Reviews
The Tin Men
I really missed Nelson’s humor. The story is dark and could have benefited from some funny lines. Dad was an expert at doing great humorous lines.
Magic mushrooms and robots gone wild.
This was disappointing military sci-fi. I thought this was the worst book I read in 2025, until Nash Falls came along, but that is the subject of a different review. Another case of a relative co-author making money on the reputation of their family member.
Excellent!
Very well done. It’s rare I enjoy a series no longer written by the original author but I hope the next of this one is in the works.