Nevadan’s page turners stay ahead of the news

Friday, May 18, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

Who: Dale Brown, author of "Strike Force"

When: 7 tonight

Where: Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 567 N. Stephanie St., Henderson

Information: 434-1533

Authors often plant the seed of a novel with a simple "what if ...?"

Dale Brown, who has banged out 19 techno-thrillers in 20 years, came up with an intriguing "what if ...?" in light of today's turmoil in the Middle East.

"What if there were a military coup in Iran?"

The simple question frames Brown's latest novel, "Strike Force," and there may be sequels in the works.

Brown, a resident of the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe, will be in Las Vegas today to sign copies of the book, which was released May 1.

"Fans will be happy to know that Patrick MacLanahan is back," Brown said. "He was absent from the past two books, 'Act of War' and 'Edge of Battle.'

"A lot of fans were concerned that MacLanahan was going away. Well, he is getting older and he's now a three-star general and not too many three-star generals still fly and fight. They're expected to be back at headquarters directing the fight, not leading it."

Brown said the premise of the book, the U.S. covert response to a military coup in Iran, is a result of what's in today's news.

"It's what I believe is eventually going to happen inside Iran," he said. "The military, the regular Iranian armed forces, are going to get tired of what the theocracy is doing to their country and they are going to revolt against it."

He says the army is only waiting for a leader willing to stand up to the theocrats and insurgents. "The military would have to stand up and take on the Revolutionary Guard directly."

The book poses another intriguing question: Would the military leading the coup be better or worse than the theocrats controlling Iran? "That's the main point of conflict in the book," Brown said.

There is a certain amount of immediacy in Brown's novels, ripping events from the day's headlines.

"It's difficult to stay on top," he said. "Back in 1991, in the 'Night of the Hawk' I dealt with a possible revolution in Lithuania, where they would like to split apart from the Soviet Union. While I was writing the book, Lithuania actually did split apart from the Soviet Union - so things like this happen all the time, which makes it really exciting."

Brown completed his first novel, "Flight of the Old Dog," while in the Air Force. It was just after Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October" hit the best-seller lists and made techno-thrillers a hot commodity.

Brown has strong opinions about the current military action in Iraq, a war which Sen. Harry Reid says the United States has lost.

"I question the reason why we went into Iraq in the first place," he said. "But now that we are there, we need to stay there and finish the fight. We can't withdraw. We can redeploy, but not the way a lot of people want to.

"We need to maintain a presence there. The war on radical Islam is a very important fight. It's the new Pearl Harbor for the United States, the new communism that we have to face.

"That's why I feel we have to stay there."