Product Description

In 1982, in the Falklands War, a young SAS trooper, Mark Black, risks his life to capture an Argentine girl spy. To knock out enemy bombers a daring mission is planned against a fortified airbase on Tierra del Fuego, the remote tip of the South American mainland. Black and his fellow SAS are sent in ahead to reconnoitre. Detected by the enemy, they must fight their way out...Twenty years on and an Argentine military junta is returned to power. They determine to reinvade the Falkland Islands. Now a senior NCO, Black is back in the South Atlantic, haunted by memories he thought he had buried. British air defences have been knocked out in a sneak attack once again Argentine forces are being secretly readied for an assault on the Islands. A team from the crack SAS Mountain Troop is inserted by submarine. But has the mission been compromised from the start? When fate throws Black together with a girl from his past, he is faced with a conflict of loyalties. Can he trust her now? And can they escape in time to destroy the enemy bombers and prevent all-out war?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57234 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The hero of Land of Fire--Chris Ryan's latest release--is a man faced with an agonising conflict within himself. Mark Black was a youthful SAS fighter in the Falklands war. To grab a female Argentine spy, he puts his life on the line. Along with his SAS colleagues, he is sent on a dangerous reconnaissance mission before an attack on a fortified airbase. Twenty years pass, and a threatening new Argentine military junta has its sights set on the Falklands again. And Mark Black, ill at ease with memories of his past, becomes involved in a new conflict after British air defences are destroyed in a sneak attack. Black once again meets the girl of his past, and finds that he has to trust an old enemy.

While other Ryan novels (for all their virtues) have occasionally utilised well-worn plots, this one is absolutely fresh as paint. The narrative (spanning many years) packs all the requisite pace and action, but Ryan never forgets how crucial characterisation is. Black's relationship with the girl who was once his enemy is brilliantly and economically realised. --Barry Forshaw

Review
Chris Ryan was once most famous for his membership of the SAS, and the bestselling The One That Got Away established him as a writer who could always be counted on for gritty verisimilitude and no-nonsense action. But Ryan quickly demonstrated that he was no one-trick pony: fictional thrillers such as The Hit List and The Watchman parlayed all the insider expertise of his first book into swiftly moving narratives that have enjoyed great success. Here he follows senior NCO Mark Black, a hero of the Falklands war coming to terms with a conflict that involves his past. During the Falklands, Blac captured a young woman who was an Argentinean spy. And as a new military junta makes bellicose noises about re-invading the Falklands, Black is forced to confront the girl of his past once again - and possibly even trust his life to her. While all the usual pulse-raising suspense is on offer, Ryan has cannily build a sharply observed element of characterization into the novel, demonstrating that he's interested in more than simply dashing off a straightforward thriller. Land of Fire may not always be as plausible as his earlier work, but it represents a new direction for Ryan, and while his regular fans will be more than pleased, he should acquire many new readers with the extra sophistication on offer here. (Kirkus UK)

Boys Toys
‘The SAS is to Chris Ryan what horse racing is to Dick'