I am reviewing the SAS thriller Dark Winter by Andy McNab which is a very good novel which I bought from a car boot sale. This is part of the Nick Stone series of thrillers about a deniable ops operative who used to be a SAS soldier and now does dangerous missions to make ends meet. He has a bit of a drink habit and an adopted orphan who has a prescription drug habit and desperately needs private treatment. The story opens in Malaysia where he kills an Al Quaida operative, Later there is the possibility of a bubonic plague biological terrorist attack on London that threatens to wipe out millions in London alone. Also his adopted orphan is kidnapped by the terrorists in an effort to make him do their bidding. He teams up with an ex female soldier who once survived a terrorist attack and has a psychological condition where she thinks she is invincible and apparently is called RUC Syndrome. RUC of course stands for Royal Ulster Constabulary and quite a lot of people who have survived bomb attacks in Northern Ireland have this condition. She’s just the person he wants in this situation where the stakes are high. The authorities know the cannisters of biological agent are coming in via the port of Kings Lynn in East Anglia and being taken into London by train. Nick has the dilemma that he could face being arrested if he helps the terrorists or even being shot by police marksmen. This is one of the better installments in the Nick Stone series and has lots of interesting facts which only an ex SAS soldier turned author like Andy would know. Things like there are more Al Quaeda members in Malaysia than any other country outside Afghanistan & Pakistan. Also there are more Muslims in Indonesia than any other country in the world. I did really enjoy reading this book. Andy is a very popular author in Britain who is also an ex Gulf War hero who was the most highly decorated soldier in the British Army at one time.
