Review: Silencer

by Andy McNab (Bantam Press

)

Forget all those 5 o’clock shadowed oafs who, with stuntman, usually, very much in tow, bounce around the big screen wiping out the bad guys – author and former SAS (Special Air Service) operative Andy McNab is the real deal.

Yes, read McNab’s mini bio on the flyleaf and weep, James Bond et al – here we have a card-carrying hero, with the DCM (Distinguished Conduct Medal) and MM (Military Medal) to boot. McNab was “the British Army’s most highly decorated serving soldier when he finally left the SAS”.

For those who know McNab’s books, Nick Stone (with a background pretty similar to McNab’s) will be familiar, as will his territory.

It’s 1993 and Stone, with fellow specialist surveillance operative, Dino, takes out the king pin of a Colombian drugs cartel. Surprisingly, Stone stuffs up.

His face is seen by the wife and son of the man he terminated.

Twenty years on, living in Moscow, involved in a serious relationship and with a baby about to be born, Stone is – almost – retired.

Hell breaks loose when a female doctor friend lined up to attend the birth (McNab provides a harrowing description of Russian maternity clinics, no wonder they have gone private…) disappears. Her trail, initially, leads to Hong Kong organised crime and the human organ trade. But, of course, this is only the beginning of a very bloody and violent tale, a tale which leads back to Dino. In Mexico, Dino is fighting his own demons, trying to get his fragile mind around 13 brutal months as a caged hostage.

Despite his operational skills and a dry black humour, Stone has bitten off more than he can chew and he has, certainly, reckoned without the forces of pure evil.

But, never say die…

Compelling and always paced at break-neck, this is a one-sitting read which might well leave you exhausted. Just the thought of stabbing someone and pulling their tongue out backwards exhausts me.

With his background and gift for action tale-telling, McNab could probably write this stuff in his sleep.

Maybe he does.

He certainly has a full life, fund-raising for military and literacy charities, lecturing to security and intelligence agencies in the UK and US and acting as adviser within the Hollywood film industry.

A skilled and busy lad.