Exit Wound

Exit Wound is another entertaining installment of the adventures of Nick Stone. As usual, the book starts with a flashback to an earlier mission when Stone was an SAS operator—this time in Berlin just before the fall of the Iron Curtain. As usual, some of the characters in the flashback will figure in his new mission, including both close friends and deadly enemies. The new mission starts off with a nice hook, as Nick and his old mates are about to raid a warehouse in Dubai where a fortune in gold taken from Saddam's Iraq is lying gathering dust. But thing go badly sideways, and soon Nick is on the hunt for the villains who crossed him and his mates.

Next the action shifts to Iran, where Nick is trying to track down the lead villain. As usual for this series, he befriends a local, a very helpful and enthusiastic fellow who is also an aviation nerd who can help Nick track down the villain's plane. This is very convenient, and it leads to another set piece mission where Nick stakes out and attacks the villain's gang at their airport lair. This time Stone doesn’t do his usual meticulous preparation, but goes straight at the gangsters with no plan and no weapon but a steel bar scavenged from a waste ground. Huh?

Things get even crazier during the climactic sequence, as Nick and his newfound Russian ladyfriend head deep into the Russia hinterlands to track down the villains at a restricted military proving ground. Again, Stone has no plan, no weapon, no map and no idea where the villains are in a zone the size of Wales, but he plows ahead anyway, breaking into the restricted area on an old motorcycle with the Russian gal in the sidecar, chainsawing (!) several chain link fences and riding a hundred miles to find the bad guys. The climax was exciting but predictable, as was the aftermath, when Nick does his usual Santa Claus act to rain money and gifts upon everyone who helped him or was harmed during the mission.

I give this three stars because it was a fast-paced (for this series), entertaining story, full of McNab’s trademark gritty details and the always interesting protagonist, Stone. But I gotta say, this was probably the most unrealistic and pulpy novel in the series so far, moving it closer to James Bond or Mack Bolan territory than the usually believable Stone stories. Stone’s rash attacks on much better-armed villains seemed out of character to me, as did his friendly relationship with his new boss, Julian, and his over the top charity toward everyone involved. Stone is still a brutal killer, but I prefer the more realistic and self-absorbed Stone of the earlier books to this pulpy avenger. The series has also gotten rather formulaic, with the opening flashbacks, local helpers and convenient jackpots at the end in every book. Seems like there were more twists and surprises in the past. Exit Wound was still an entertaining read, but not one of my favorites.

Get a copy of Exit Wound here.

Firewall

I've recently gotten hooked on the brilliant Nick Stone series, so I'm going back and re-reading the early books that I first read 15 or 20 years ago. The third installment, Firewall, was published in 2000, back when the internet was still a wild frontier where new empires were being built and Russian organized crime was the global menace of the day. As a successful but slightly shady internet entrepreneur who travelled through Finland, Eastern Europe, Russia and London during the wild ride of those years, the locations, characters and technologies in this novel stirred up memories of some of the best times of my life.

Anyway, as Firewall opens, Nick Stone is on a job in Helsinki, about to kidnap a Russian mafia boss and escort him across the border to St. Petersburg where he'll receive a cool 300k dollars for his trouble. Unfortunately, his crew consists of some rather effed-up characters, and the op soon goes sideways in a most violent and frenetic manner. Things don't turn out as planned, but Stone does get a new job offer, which involves penetrating a high security home in rural Finland surrounded by a 40 foot high fence where some hacker-types have some data on their computers that Stone's new employers desperately want. This will be a fully criminal job for the Russian mob, but Nick is desperate for money because the bills at the high-priced clinic where his catatonic adopted daughter Kelly is being treated are piling up, so lacking any other options, he quickly accepts.

As the mission is hastily prepared, Nick brings in an associate from Remote Control named Tom to handle the hacker side of things, while Nick will take care of the tough-guy commando stuff. Their handler in Finland is a beautiful and mysterious blonde mafia moll named Liv, who acquires all the equipment Nick requests for the penetration and hacking job. As Nick prepares various special tools and makes his infiltration plan, Tom is busy trying to penetrate the firewall that the Finnish hackers have put around their network at the target home. Unfortunately the mission again goes badly sideways, as Tom is not cut out for the physical side of the op, violent new American players appear on the scene, and Nick has to make a daring escape.

This leads into the novel's second and potentially even more lucrative set-piece mission, which involves the sabotage of another hacker compound way out in the Estonian countryside. Apparently the technology the mafia is after can access the notorious ECHELON global surveillance network run by the NSA, which would give them vast power to expand their criminal empire. Now they want to destroy the whole installation to prevent a rival mafia group from using it against them. But first, Nick has to survive muggings and deal with some nasty Estonian thugs, who are his only contacts for the weapons he needs for the job.This mission was the highlight of the novel for me. McNab, calling on his expertise as a former SAS commando, provides a very detailed and believable account of Stone's preparation of the explosives, his stealth approach to the compound, and his laying of the charges in a precise way so as to maximize damage to the target. Not only was this dramatic reading, but it was like a free course in sabotage by an expert!

As usual with Stone's missions though, this one doesn't go smoothly, and Stone and an associate soon find themselves having to flee cross-country through a snowstorm in brutal winter cold. Here McNab's survival expertise is showcased, as Stone not only has to improvise a compass to hold a direction in the white-out conditions, but keep himself and his partner alive as hypothermia starts to set in. The novel ends with a twist or two that are, as usual, not very happy ones for Nick.

Firewall was another brilliant and exciting adventure in the Nick Stone saga. This installment was particularly action-packed, and the focus on the missions rather than Nick's personal drama with Kelly was a welcome change from other books. I also liked the setting: the decaying, corrupt world of post-Soviet eastern Europe and the bleak northern European winters were familiar from my own travels decades ago, and perfect operational environments for the bleak and cynical Stone.

Now that I've read six or seven of these books, I can confidently say that Nick Stone belongs up there with Quiller and Parker as one of my absolute favorite shadow-fiction series of all time. Nick isn't a particularly likeable character—he's a bit whiny and lacks the stoic appeal of other shadow warriors—but his adventures have such an edge of realism and intensity, so many authentic details from McNab's background as an SAS man, such gripping story-telling and timely plotting, that I find myself wanting to read them one after the other and get lost in Nick Stone's shadowy, action-packed world.

Get a copy of Firewall here.

Dark Winter

Most shadow-fiction (my catch-all term for fiction that features spies, assassins, special forces, terrorists and criminals) is penned by professional writers whose real-life experience with the world of shadow warfare is limited or non-existent. Andy McNab (pen name of Billy Mitchell) is a different story; he actually lived the life of a covert operator as a member of the SAS (elite British Special Forces) in the 1980s and early 90s. His most famous operation is recounted in his book Bravo Two Zero, which tells the story of a daring mission behind enemy lines in Iraq during the first Gulf War to gather intel about Saddam's Scud missile launchers.

In 1998, McNab published the first novel in his popular series about everyman commando Nick Stone. Like McNab, Stone served in the SAS in the 1980s and 90s, before becoming a deniable operator for MI6, known as a "K". Stone's missions range from personal protection and kidnapping to black bag jobs, sabotage and assassination. The level of authentic covert ops knowledge incorporated into the stories and the realism of the action were something exciting and new in the shadow-fiction world, and made them immediate bestsellers. I read the first five books many years ago and remember enjoying them quite a bit; I recently decided to read the next installment and see if I still felt the same.

Dark Winter is the 6^th book in the series, published in 2003, during the early days of the "War on Terror". As the story opens, Stone is in Malaysia with his fellow K operative, Suzy, and they're on the trail of a suspected al Qaeda scientist. The Firm (British Intelligence) has learned of a plot to unleash a bio-terror attack in the West, and Nick and Suzy are tasked with taking out the terrorist. This was an exciting start to the story; in typical McNab style, the first-person narrative is almost real-time, photographically detailed, and puts you right in the shoes of the shadow operator. However, the hit doesn't end the plot, and we soon learn that some bottles of a bio-terror pathogen have arrived in London, and given the code name Dark Winter. Stone, who had recently been working for the CIA and is now a US citizen, is called back into emergency service in the UK by his old boss, a very nasty piece of work he calls "Yes-Man". Stone is given an al Qaeda informant to meet, then an address to investigate where the bottles may be located. These operations are described in excruciating detail, as Stone takes every precaution to prevent being followed, noticed, attacked or infected by the pathogen.

Between the set pieces of Stone and Suzy carefully infiltrating enemy hideouts and taking out members of the  opposition, there are chapters devoted to the ongoing saga of Kelly, a girl Stone adopted after her family was brutally killed in the first book of the series, Remote Control. It seems that Kelly has developed a prescription drug habit and may be bulemic, and she still hasn't gotten over the trauma of her family's deaths. She is further traumatized by Nick always having to leave unexpectantly to go on missions, and this causes Nick a great deal of guilt, especially now as he is called away just when she was making good progress with a new therapist. 

Anyway, just when it seems that Stone and Suzy have delivered a fatal blow to the terrorist cell, the story takes a dark twist and Nick is forced to go to Berlin to deal with another cell. The full extent of the terrorist plot is revealed, and events race to a dramatic climax, which I won't spoil, except to say that it is rather shocking and very gripping reading. While there were several sections in the first few hundred pages that were slow going, the last 100 pages or so were classic Nick Stone action, and the ending was up there with a notorious early scene of Remote Control for it's brutal, realistic violence. McNab, more than any other author I can think of, never sugar coats the nature of real shadow warfare or feels obligated to provide a happy outcome.

As I was reading this book, I had two main criticisms: 1) the excessive level of detail about things that didn't seem very interesting or relevant to the story, and 2) the excessive attention to the personal drama between Nick and Kelly, which seemed like a distraction from the main terrorism thriller story line. But now that I've finished the book, I'm not so critical.

On point 1), the attention to Stone's mundane experiences—buying fast food, the trash on the street, couples shouting at each other in the next flat, etc.—might be dull at times, but the brilliant thing about it is that when Stone does go into action—infiltrating a building, tracking down a terrorist, killing enemy operatives, or what have you—it is much more believable and hard-hitting than the exploits of someone like Mack Bolan, who goes from battle to battle with few real-life details in between. With Stone, you always feel like you're looking through the eyes of a real shadow operator at work, not reading a men's comic book. On point 2), the drama with Kelly gives Stone some personality and something besides himself to care about. Without that, he would be a rather cynical, emotionless, self-centered robot who would be hard to sympathize with. The relationship with Kelly also turns out to be critical to the way this story plays out.

I should also mention that Suzy was a great partner for Nick, and in some ways was the star of the book. She's a special ops veteran with a background similar to Nick's, and her fearless, ultra-confident, adrenaline-junky personality saves his bacon on more than one occasion.

All in all, despite some slow parts in the middle, this is an exciting and intense thriller, highly recommended for fans of realistic shadow-fiction. Get a copy of Dark Winter here.

Splinter Cell

Splinter Cell, the first in a series of novels based on the popular stealth video game, has an  intriguing premise: an ultra-secret NSA division called Third Echelon employs agents called "Splinter Cells" to infiltrate enemy installations, spy, steal, sabotage and assassinate to protect American interests.

The protagonist is Sam Fisher, a highly competent loner who has little apparent personality or life beyond his government work and his Krav Maga practice. Fisher employs an array of impressive gadgetry, including a suit that regulates body temperature, makes no sound and resists bullets, and a device called an OPSAT that did in the early 2000s what smartphones do today, but with high security, global satellite coverage and a direct line to NSA HQ. Fisher is also a master of stealth and shadow warfare—basically a 21st century ninja. He can pick any lock in seconds, scale walls and climb ropes with the best of them, evade capture, blow up buildings and take people out with his bare hands. But therein lies the problem: Fisher is a little too good, and everything comes a little too easy for him. He's like Nick Carter—a superman spy who never seems to have a major mishap or encounter any obstacle he can't overcome.

This first installment concerns the machinations of a SPECTRE-like cabal of arms dealers called the Shop that is targeting Splinter Cells for death, having already murdered two agents and set their sights on Fisher. They are also sponsoring a very nasty Islamic terrorist outfit called "the Shadows" that is spreading al Qaeda-style mayhem.  Fisher is sent to the Middle East to track both organizations down and destroy their operations. This involves using his stealth skills to infiltrate various offices and bases, gather incriminating information, blow up their assets and take out any bad guys who cross his path. Unfortunately, the Shop ups the ante by kidnapping his daughter, and this really motivates Fisher and puts him hot on their trail.

Author "David Michaels" is actually Raymond Benson, who was the official author of the James Bond series from 1996 to 2003. His writing is perfectly functional but not terribly inspired—he's certainly no Ian Fleming, and Sam Fisher is no James Bond. Benson was the hired writing help here, not the series creator, and it shows. Fans of the video game or Clancy techno-thrillers who are intrigued by the premise may enjoy this book, but I found it all a bit predictable and by the numbers. Splinter Cell offers neither shadow op realism, gripping narrative, interesting characters, nor wild entertainment of the sort you find in classic men's adventure fiction. Give it a pass unless you have nothing better to read.

Buy a copy of Splinter Cell here.