Product Description

Aborting an officially-sanctioned assassination attempt at the Houses of Parliament when he realises who the target is, Secret Intelligence Service deniable operator Nick Stone is given a chilling ultimatum: fly to Panama and finish the job, or Kelly, the eleven-year-old orphan in his charge, will be killed. Stone is on the edge, struggling to pick up the pieces of his shattered life, trying to come to terms with a heartrending decision he has made about Kelly?s future. By the time he arrives in Panama, he is close to breaking point. And in the sweltering Central American jungle, Stone finds himself at the centre of a lethal conspiracy involving Colombian guerrillas, the US government and Chinese big business. At stake are hundreds of innocent lives. He has a critically injured friend to rescue and miles of dense rainforest to navigate. And in an explosive denouement at the Panama Canal, Nick Stone is forced to make the toughest decision of his life?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21730 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Last Light is a resounding demonstration of Andy McNab's evolving abilities, offering a richer level of plotting, along with the customary well-turned rough stuff. McNab might initially have seemed to be some kind of briefly shining star in the bestseller firmament, his SAS experience and well-advertised pseudonym guaranteeing a couple of toughly authentic thrillers in the style of Bravo Two Zero, and no more. But such successive books as Firewall, Remote Control and Crisis Four have categorically demonstrated that he has more than enough top-flight skills to sustain a long writing career.

In Last Light, after terminating an officially approved assassination bid at the Houses of Parliament when he realises the identity of the intended target, McNab's hard-as-nails protagonist Nick Stone, "deniable operator" of the intelligence services, is severely disciplined by his bosses. He is told to travel to Panama and finish the job, or he and Kelly (the 11-year-old girl he is guarding) will be "taken care of" themselves. As Nick gets ready for his assignment in central America, he soon finds that his enemies have turned the tables on him: he is now the hunted, and finds himself up to his neck in a murky plot involving Colombian rebels and the US government. All the usual McNab fingerprints are here: not too much shading, but flinty characterisation and a barrel load of high-velocity action.--Barry Forshaw

From the Back Cover
Aborting an officially-sanctioned assassination attempt at the Houses of Parliament when he realises who the target is, Secret Intelligence Service deniable operator Nick Stone is given a chilling ultimatum: fly to Panama and finish the job, or Kelly, the eleven-year-old orphan in his charge, will be killed.

Stone is on the edge, struggling to pick up the pieces of his shattered life, trying to come to terms with a heartrending decision he has made about Kelly's future. By the time he arrives in Panama, he is close to breaking point. And in the sweltering Central American jungle, Stone finds himself at the centre of a lethal conspiracy involving Colombian guerrillas, the US government and Chinese big business. At stake are hundreds of innocent lives.

He has a critically injured friend to rescue and miles of dense rainforest to navigate. And in an explosive denouement at the Panama Canal, Nick Stone is forced to make the toughest decision of his life...

About the Author
Andy McNab:
joined the infantry as a boy soldier. In 1984 he was 'badged' as a member of 22 SAS Regiment and was involved in both covert and overt special operations worldwide. During the Gulf War he commanded Bravo Two Zero, a patrol that, in the words of his commanding officer, 'will remain in regimental history for ever'. Awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and Military Medal (MM) during his military career, McNab was the British Army's most highly decorated serving soldier when he finally left the SAS in February 1993. He wrote about his experiences in two phenomenal bestsellers, Bravo Two Zero, which was filmed in 1998 starring Sean Bean, and Immediate Action. He is the author of the bestselling novels, Remote Control, Crisis Four, Firewall, Last Light, Liberation Day and Dark Winter. Besides his writing work, he lectures to security and intelligence agencies in both the USA and UK.

Customer Reviews

DESERVES TO BE NO. 1
As someone who is virtually housebound, I get to read an awful lot of books (and a lot of awful books!) so I know a good one when I see it. I always buy the new Andy McNab when it comes out, and I haven't been disappointed yet. Same this time. "Last Light" is a phenomenal read. Gutsy, credible, you really think you're living the action every inch of the way. But there's more to this book than blood and bullets. The characters, especially Aaron I thought, are really vibrant, living people. You care about what happens to them. Well done Andy on another magnificent achievement. I know they don't put books like this in for the Booker Prize and things like that, but they jolly well ought to. Nick Stone would win hands down.

Nick Stone goes from strength to strength
Last Light is definitely McNab's best yet. From its breathtakingly audacious opening to its surprisingly poignant conclusion, this book is a winner.

The thrills are here in droves, of course. So's the tradecraft, and the McNab hallmark gifts of absolute authenticity and relentless excitement. But the real plus for me, this time around, is that McNab dares to take his hero to the kind of psychological low that we haven't seen in thriller fiction since John Le Carre's Spy Who Came In From The Cold, and that makes the tension, both in London and the Panama jungle, almost unbearable.

Nick Stone is a satisfyingly complex character, who becomes more interesting with every novel. He is the guy who does the dirty jobs that we need him to do - and he pays the price.

Can't wait for the next one.

Pure Realism
McNab (actually I should probably call him Mr. McNab) just gets better and better. What I admire about this guy is that he was not put on this earth to be a novelist. If it wasn't for Bravo Two Zero he'd probably be a bodyguard to some Sheikh in Saudi Arabia. But he has fashioned a new career and he gets refreshingly better with every sip. Last Light is a real paradox - it's incredibly slowly paced but never bores you. You'd think you'd get bored of ten pages of surveillance in the Jungle in Panama but you don't. I believe this is because the reader knows in the back of his mind that Mr. McNab has definitively been there and done that before. He was probably stalking Noriega in Panama in 1988. So the realism on each page absolutely screams back at you. The other great thing about these novels is that the central character - Nick Stone - is not some Ninja king who can kung fu fifteen opponents while picking his nose. He gets scared, he gets hurt, and he's not a particularly likeable character. But, bejesus he's believable. And for that reason alone this book is worth reading. The special forces have become so romanticised in the mass media (especially in light of current events), that I think Mr. McNab and his books should be required reading in order to understand that a small group of men - however well trained - cannot save the world from terrorism. After all, they're only humans. And there's no doubt that Nick Stone is human.