This book features three people, three stories, and a desperate race for survival in a country in the midst of war. Nick Scott fought in the SAS during the first Gulf War. Captured and tortured, he was left a broken man. His daughter, Sarah Scott is a beautiful young scientist who has cracked one of the scientific secrets of the age. Now, she has vanished. Her lover, Jed Bradley is one of the SAS's toughest young agents, dropped behind enemy lines in the build up to the Iraq War to find the truth about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. Caught up in a global power play, Nick and Jed must fight their way through a war-ravaged Iraq as the regime of Saddam Hussein collapses around them. It is a desperate race to find the woman they both love, and to unlock the secret of the Ultimate Weapon.

The new blockbuster from number one bestselling author, Chris Ryan.

Three people. Three stories. And a desperate race for survival in a country in the midst of war.

Nick Scott fought in the SAS first Gulf War. Captured and tortured, he was left a broken man. His daughter Sarah Scott is a beautiful young scientist who has cracked one of the scientific secrets of the age. Now, she has vanished. Her lover Jed Bradley is one of th SAS's toughest young agents, dropped behind enemy lines in the build up to the Iraq War to find the truth about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.Caught up in a global power play, Nick and Jed must fight their way through a war-ravaged Iraq as the regime of Saddam Hussein collapses around them. It is a desperate race to find the woman they both love. And to unlock the secret of the Ultimate Weapon.

Three people. Three stories. And a desperate race for survival in a country in the midst of war.

Nick Scott fought in the SAS first Gulf War. Captured and tortured, he was left a broken man. His daughter Sarah Scott is a beautiful young scientist who has cracked one of the scientific secrets of the age. Now, she has vanished. Her lover Jed Bradley is one of th SAS's toughest young agents, dropped behind enemy lines in the build up to the Iraq War to find the truth about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.Caught up in a global power play, Nick and Jed must fight their way through a war-ravaged Iraq as the regime of Saddam Hussein collapses around them. It is a desperate race to find the woman they both love. And to unlock the secret of the Ultimate Weapon.

Praise for Chris Ryan:

'Hard as nails' Mirror

'Bone crunching action... tough and fast moving' Amazon

'Chock full of military fat to chew on... will keep you awake until dawn' FHM

'Packed with trademark technical detailing and gung-ho action' Mirror

Chris Ryan:
Chris Ryan was born in 1961 in a village near Newcastle. In 1984 he joined the SAS. During his ten years in the Regiment , he was involved in overt and covert operations and was also Sniper team commander of the anti-terrorist team. During the Gulf War, Chris was the only member of an eight-man team to escape from Iraq, of which three colleagues were killed and four captured. It was the longest escape and evasion in the history of the SAS. For this he was awarded the Military Medal. During Ryan's last two years in the Regiment he selected and trained potential SAS recruits, he left the SAS in 1994 and is now the author of many bestselling thrillers for adults, as well as the Alpha Force and Code Red series for younger readers. His work in security takes him around the world. He has also appeared in a number of TV programmes, including Hunting Chris Ryan, Pushed to the Limit (Toughest Families) and Terror Alert (Sky TV, 2004).

2008-05-04 A bit of fun that's about as unrealistic as any Hollywood action movie and is amateurishly written and edited. Don't bother.

I have been into SAS fiction and non-fiction for some years now, and have read Ryan's, McNab's and Michael Asher's books on the Bravo Two Zero mission. I must firstly admit to having nearly had my fill of the whole ex-SAS hardguy fiction genre now, but I bought this in an airport when I just wanted to sit down and read something that's nothing more than a bit of fun. I had my fun - but had no satisfaction finishing the book; I felt that I had wasted precious hours instead of that feeling of achievement one should experience at the end of a good novel.

The plot is a bit silly but acceptable. Less forgiveable is the terrible editing (especially since the book is dedicated to Ryan's publishing team!); not only are there some bad typos, but someone's clearly gone through the text rearranging sentences and hasn't re-read it to ensure that it still makes sense. Even when the text does flow, there are high-school errors such as using the word "cautious" twice in the same sentence. It's a shame Ryan didn't bother investing in a thesaurus.

Then there's the action, which is good if occasionally pointless. The characters seem to have fisticuffs for no apparent reason which seems to go against the SAS way of doing things, for starters. Then Stone cracks a rib early on in the book; sure, he's a hard guy - but he then goes on running around and having more fights without so much as a mention to the problems a broken rib would cause even the toughest of soldiers. Then he slices his hand on broken glass while stabbing someone, yet has no issues from his increasing tally of wounds while shooting his way through Iraq.
The book feels like a poor Hollywood action movie, rather than something that's written by a guy who should know from personal experience the difference between what is physically punishing yet humanly possible, and what just can't be done.
What I have liked about SAS fiction is that it's impressive, yet plausible. This is gripping in the easy-to-read "I wouldn't-mind-finding-out-what-happens-next sense" - but the cocktail of writing mistakes and poorly planned plot results in something that is just unengrossing. When I read a book I want to be unaware of the pages in front of me; not constantly being pulled back to the real world of spelling, grammar and questions about how long it takes ribs to mend.

A poor effort from a writer who can - and has done - much better. Give it a miss and go for one of the other myriad of similar books available.