In The Tin Men, DeMille senior and junior deliver a high-octane military-tech thriller that both satisfies the genre’s demands and asks sharper questions about the future of warfare. The setting is a remote desert base, Camp Hayden, where a platoon of US Army Rangers is pitted against a cadre of “lethal autonomous weapons” – seven-foot-tall titanium robots nick-named the “tin men”.
The body of Major Roger Ames, skull crushed, is discovered, and agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor of the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) are dispatched to determine whether this was a tragic accident, a breakdown in programming, or something far more sinister.
Right from the first chapters, the pace accelerates: the robotic adversaries overwhelm human soldiers during training, tensions bubble among the Rangers (grueling isolation, doping, the rough desert environment), and every human on the base becomes a suspect—from the camp commander to the research scientists to the exhausted soldiers themselves. The scene is set for a marriage of high-stakes action and complex moral terrain.
One interesting appeal of the novel is its timely interrogation of what autonomous weapons really mean. The tin men are not simply machines; they’re “inputs and outputs” devoid of soul, yet their behaviour triggers human responses. It is like “machines don’t have motives but they have speed and agility.”
The authors use this to raise the eerie question: when the human inventors and operators pull the levers, who is really in control? And if machines make the kill, who answers for it? The theme is urgent rather than speculative, anchored in a believable near-future.
The characters of Brodie and Taylor are well drawn. While this is part of a continuing series, this entry works perfectly as a standalone: the authors provide enough back-story to orient new readers without bogging down the momentum.
Brodie is smart, sarcastic yet grounded; Taylor is competent, tough and morally alert. Their dialogues carry a crisp wit, and the tension in their partnership helps drive the story’s emotional gravitas as well as its suspense.
From a storytelling perspective, the novel ticks many boxes: isolated base, high-tech weapons gone rogue, hidden agendas, deteriorating human morale, and a mounting mystery culminating in a large robot-vs-human showdown. Apparently, the DeMilles kick the action into high gear early on and don’t let up, making the novel a “fast-moving and disturbingly plausible” thriller. And the final act delivers a crescendo worthy of a blockbuster.
That said, there are a few caveats. Some plot threads feel familiar: the “one man dead in the desert base” trope is well-worn, and the “rogue AI weapon” scenario has been fertile ground in recent techno-thrillers. To their credit, the authors manage enough fresh details to elevate the execution, but those looking for wholly uncharted territory may find hints of predictability. Additionally, while the tin-men robots carry menace, they remain largely mechanical; the real tension is human-driven, which is fine — but the reader seeking nuanced robot “characters” might feel short-changed.
Finally, the book has extra weight given that it is the final collaboration of Nelson DeMille, who passed away in 2024, with his son. The sense of legacy is present: the elder DeMille’s mastery of suspense and military-thriller craft, combined with Alex’s film-background pacing, make this a potent combination.
Ultimately, The Tin Men is a compelling, vibrant thriller that will fascinate fans of military and techno-suspense alike. It blends adrenaline-fuelled sequences with thoughtful questions about technology, warfare, and human agency.
Recommended for readers who enjoy fast-paced thrillers with a speculative edge; perhaps less so for those seeking deeply philosophical sci-fi or non-stop original inventions. But for its purpose, it delivers powerfully.