Cobra Pose by Susan Rogers and John Roosen
Susan Rogers and John Roosen’s new novel Cobra Pose, second in their Yoga Mat Mystery series, is a fast-paced and skillfully plotted thriller involving the same protagonists as in their debut novel Dead Man’s Pose — yoga studio owner Elaina Williams and Ric Peters, her sleuthing partner and love interest — but with far higher stakes. Per intelligence chatter to which Ric’s security job makes him privy, a menacing East European crime syndicate called the Cobra is launching a cyber-attack meant to topple Australasia’s entire financial system. And Elaina’s mysteriously missing physician father Edward Williams may be Cobra’s pawn in this game, given his highly touted side-hustle as creator of many cybersecurity systems in Australia and beyond.
Jump Back Into the Action
Cobra Pose opens with Ric back in Sydney after a two-month ASIS (Australian Security Intelligence Service) stint in Indonesia about which he has told Elaina nothing. It’s left him with taped up sore ribs, a bit spooked by shadows and not sure where he stands with her, but when she reaches out to say she’s worried about the whereabouts of her father, he jumps to help. Using technical voice-testing to determine that her father’s latest email lacks its usual gait and has an arrhythmic use of breath not heard in earlier messages, Ric rushes Elaina onto the next plane for Brisbane to hunt him down. Finding no clues at his office, they run into Elaina’s Uncle Max as they leave Edward’s empty residence. Himself a Brisbane resident Max Williams not only also works for ASIS but served as Ric’s boss in Indonesia, raising questions for Elaina that both Ric and Max brush aside. Max checks himself, Ric and Elaina into a downtown Brisbane apartment and assures Elaina that finding his brother is a priority but she mustn’t pry for details.
Cobra Pose’s three lines of story then unfold side-by-side. One narrative follows Elaina chasing her own leads, with Max’s assistant to help her and Ric too at times. Separately, Ric, Max, the ASIS team and their AI machine Katherine follow the chatter of nefarious hackers who blind surveillance cameras, disable listening equipment and consistently hamper ASIS efforts at finding Edward. And thirdly, the bad guys ready their plan. The Cobra team includes two generations of Bulgarian businessmen with human trafficking and drug ties. The hackers run the gamut, from one who thinks torturing Elaina is a useful idea to a young tech in a backwards baseball cap who wants to learn English and avoid inflicting pain on anyone. Worst is Algerian fixer extraordinaire Farid Bensalah. Ric has crossed paths with Farid for the last three years — most recently in Indonesia — and hates him. Max calls Farid “the most sadistic human I’ve ever come across, in fact I am not sure he is human.”
Elaina accepts that it won’t “be a single item that would help find her father, but dozens of small items hooked together.” But then Ric lets her down in one heart-breaking moment. From then on prospects dim for Edward’s survival, Elaina’s safety and Ric’s well-being, as does any hope for Ric and Elaina to reconnect. The climax is riveting.
An Unputdownable Book
Cobra Pose makes for a compelling read. The book abounds with secondary characters who hint at a rich backstory, like the homeless man who juggles, the detective with the broken and reset nose, and a yoga studio manager with fingers missing. And to further muddy Ric’s relationship with Elaina, Angelina Zielinski — the seductive MIT graduate cyber expert unapologetically hired by Ric — sees him as “a wild horse brought in from the Wyoming Range … needing to be broken in … and she knew how to handle the reins.” Sketch maps of Brisbane, Kangaroo Point and the Gold Coast islands of south-east Queensland add a noir feel to the story. Outback settings make it real, alternating between stunning shots of nature and places like the Italian lunch spot with its “red candle burning in the center of the parquet table and a large squirt bottle of tomato sauce, the décor … Tuscany meets Surfers Paradise.” And it would not be a yoga mat mystery without forty different references to Ric’s urgent need for good coffee. As usual, understated humor resides amidst the thrills and all the elements put together make Cobra Pose an unputdownable book.
What do a woman, who used to train military personnel how to shoot straight, and a man, skilled at eradicating all sorts of hazardous materials safely, have in common? Besides both being designated law enforcement officers, they have now written a ‘knock ‘em dead’ book … together!
John Roosen started his career as a biologist, served as a naval officer and environmental emergency specialist in the United States, and has lived and worked in Australasia, Antarctica and the Middle East. At a moment’s notice, he would respond to chemical and refinery plant explosions, deal with rocket fuel plant meltdowns and dismantle illegal drug labs. As a changeup, John switched careers to chasing pirates and duelling with a con artist extraordinaire on a remote South Pacific island. In between, he organised jungle expeditions and deep-sea scuba diving. However, John’s experience extends beyond responding to cataclysmic disasters and includes mastering the intricacies of making soufflé omelettes without burning the edges.
Susan Rogers already knew she was a writer at age six, but as an adult she took a major detour in becoming a commissioned naval officer. She has conducted sting operations, run extensive weapons training programs and directed the restoration of a Presidential yacht. In between, she has written several books, run health and safety operations for multi-billion-dollar projects in Abu Dhabi and revamped a South Pacific maritime service. Susan continues to write: whether braced against the hull of a sailing vessel on a hard tack, during a crossing of the Middle East’s empty quarter in a Mini, or bouncing around in a troop carrier in Australia’s outback.
