Blimey, what a roller-coaster. A hardback is heavy, but Detonator was so gripping I toted it all the way up to Newcastle, where I was doing some publicity for my own books.

What an extraordinary man. During the Gulf War Andy McNab of 22 SAS commanded Bravo Two Zero and went on to write the biggest selling British work of military history about that patrol. Now he writes the huge selling Nick Stone and Tom Buckingham novels, cutting a swathe through the publishing world.

The plotting is tight, the hooks gallop us into turning the pages, the excitement is intense: there is humour, sadness, and authenticity. Or so I would think anyway. It rang so true to a mere civilian.

Nick Stone is a great main character who has spent a lifetime in harm’s way – but when someone he cares for very deeply is murdered in cold blood, he can no longer just take the pain.

A high-level internecine conflict at the dark heart of the resurgent Russian Empire and an assassin’s bullet, on an isolated Alpine pass, propel him from an apparently run of the mill close protection task into his most brutal and challenging mission yet.  As the body count increases, vengeance of the most explosive kind is top of Stone’s agenda. The fuse has been ignited – but who really holds the detonator?

Set in all too realistic times the scenario felt horribly possible, and would that we had a Nick Stone on our side, but perhaps we have, in McNab’s former outfit. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit.

A rumbunctious fabulous writer, who twists, turns and makes you sweat. Probably just what this highly decorated soldier did in the SAS too.

Can’t wait for the next book. Bravo, Andy McNab.

Published by Transworld Publishers – £18.99