Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780552150194
ISBN number: 0552150193
Label: Corgi
Manufacturer: Corgi
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 512
Printing Date: November 13, 2006
Publishing house: Corgi
Release Date: November 13, 2006
Sale Popularity Level: 445873
Studio: Corgi
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
This unforgettable story proves Andy McNab is, yet again, the master of the modern thriller.
Nick Stone’s future has never looked so bleak. The only person he’s ever loved is dead. The only people who might give him a reason not to join her have turned their backs. Until a chance encounter with a man whose life he saved ten years ago.
A simple quest in Baghdad takes Stone into the heart of a chilling conspiracy; too late, he realizes that he is being used as bait to lure into the open a man he believes can offer some salvation but whom the darker forces of the West will stop at nothing to destroy.
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Rated by buyers -
In deep black, we accompany Nick Stone on another one of his adventures. After some preamble that described one of Stone's earlier missions into Bosnia that went wrong, we open in the present, with a highly depressed Stone, talking to a shrink, lamenting the loss of somebody close to him, although it is not immediately apparent who that may be. Stone is then rather implausibly coerced into accompanying a friend of his, Jeral, ostensibly on a journalist mission into Bagdhad, to meet the elusive Bosnian revolutionary Nuhanovic. And so the story kicks off, taking us both to Bagdhad and Sarajevo. Further details would spoil the plot for prospective readers.
I fault this story because it is told entirely through the eyes of one man: Nick Stone. As a writing technique, this style certainly has its place. But not in this story, which quickly became very one-sided and very boring because of the limited perspective. I felt like I had blinkers on, and Nick Stone is certainly not too introspective. In fact, he doesn't seem to weigh up anybody else's opinions except his own, which end up making him seem like a dim-witted thug. Jeral, Nuhanovic.... they all must have had their own thoughts and actions, which would have contributed considerably to the overall picture.
There is certainly some intrigue and manipulation worked into the story: essentially the US government manipulating Nick Stone into doing their dirty work for them. But he figures it all out, and then does the job anyway. I can't imagine somebody really responding like that. The book also moves at an odd pace. Sometimes the interesting bits get condensed into a paragraph, while at other times, a boring trek up a hill in the dark can be expanded into chapters. Hence, I found myself skipping quite a few pages.
There are also some slightly irritating errors. McNab (not his real name) refers to terrorists flying "a 747 into a building". But no Boeing 747 has ever been flown into a building. Since McNab claims in the author notes of his books that he "lectures to security and intelligence agencies in the USA and the UK", one would think that he would be better informed? Perhaps not?
Overall, I would probably recommend something else. Two-and-a-half stars from me.
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