Things a British Author Gets Wrong

I’m rereading the Reacher series and I’m frequently reminded of the little things that Child gets wrong. I’m sure there are more, but as an American, the things I notice are about guns and cars. Sort of the way Deighton has Americans say “physiotherapy” rather than “physical therapy.”

I’m reading “The Midnight Line” now and he describes the rifle as an “M14 Garand.” There never was such a thing and no former Army officer who won a long range shooting competition would call it that. In “Killing Floor,” he talks about how a 90 grain 9mm is low velocity subsonic. A 90 grain 9mm would be either very high velocity or not cycle the action. A 90 grain would be subsonic in a .380 (9mm kurtz). There’s the one where loading M9s multiple times would cause a failure to fire, when the issue would be failure to feed.

There’s lots of car errors, but the one that comes to mind is when he gets an 80s Corvette and says it has a bigger engine than the sedans of the era. Nope. Same engine, same size.

Anyway, I really like the books and am rereading them, but it’s half frustrating that a character that professes attention to detail has these issues and half enjoyment of my own interaction with the stories.

Are there other things that a British author gets wrong about Americana?