The Word Cloud

It's comforting, when after the umteenth re-read of your m/s and you still find a typo, to come across the occasional one that has slipped through the professional net and made it into permanent print. All the more so when the typo is as hillarious as the one I read when on holiday. Tom Clancy, no less, in Dead or Alive (although in fairness, this novel was co-written with Grant Blackwood, so perhaps we can blame him - or the copy editors). here's the passage to get the context:

"Dominic crab-walked two steps, brought up the shotgun, and blasted the man in the back of the legs. The impact shoved him against the door. His AK clattered to the tiles as he slumped sideways. Dominic stood up and tossed away the shotgun. He drew his Browning and walked over to the man, who lay writing and groaning on the floor."

The odd typo is forgivable, but factual inaccuracy is not. I also read a James Patterson book, Black Market, on holiday. I usually enjoy Patterson, but this one was very poorly written indeed. Certainly no agent would have taken it on if it had had my name attached to it. On every other page someone was in 'unbelievable' pain, or doing something 'unbelievably' difficult, or 'incredibly' hard. The number of times he used those adverbs was - well, unbelievable.

He came up with one of the worst similes I've seen: "His eyes turned cold, like a fire that has just gone out." (So, still fairly hot then?)
And those facts. Shannon - "the Irish airport outside Dublin." (Well, no, that would be Dublin Airport; Shannon's on the other side of the island.
He referred to "the dark blue uniform of a Belfast policeman" (Erm, wrong again - dark green.)
And, still in Belfast (during The Troubles): "teams of British Special Branch men and Irish police arrived. (Wow, that would have stirred things up a bit. What were the Garda doing in Belfast?)

Anyone else spot slip-ups or sloppy writing by established authors?