Chris Ryan

Chris Ryan is a former member of the SAS and he writes books about the SAS! I'd say he does it rather well! I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes to read about the things that soldiers, especially members of the Special Forces, can get up to.

The basis of this story is a kidnap. The main character returns from a job in South America to find that his partner and son have been kidnapped by the PIRA: Provisional IRA. There is a web of intrigue to get the family back that takes in the SAS itself, the Special Branch of the police, the ordinary police, the prison service and a whole lot more!

Ryan's action scenes are really very good: he writes them very well and there are plenty of action scenes to keep us occupied. One of the best concerns comes early in the book when the hero is lying in bed when suddenly he hears a scratching downstairs as someone is trying to break into his house ... I must have been carried along to read that at the rate of around 2,000 words a minute!

The book is almost 400 pages long and it kept me interested for most of that; but around two thirds of the way through I did have a feeling for around about a chapter of wanting to finish it. Still, it recovered and ended in fine style.

There are three of four sub plots to help to move the story along: after all, a kidnap plot can only take so many twists and turns, so Ryan takes us to Lybia, all over Oxfordshire, to Chequers, to Hereford, to Swindon and a couple of other places deep in the woods! Whether the sub plots could ever unfold in real life is something that mere mortals will never unravel and some of what Ryan writes about is incredible. Certainly leaves us incredulous!

There are a couple of niggling mistakes in the book that a decent editor really should have spotted: almost at the beginning a chapter ends with the hero having made an appointment for 7 am the following day. The following chapter just about begins with him being stressed at almost missing his appointment at 6 am.

Similarly, Ryan has no problems with showing us that even the SAS isn't entirely perfect: he gives us insights into the organisation and planning and where they can go wrong that we never see on the news! There seems to be no doubt though that the SAS is held in very high regard as a fighting force and Ryan's stories help to cement that impression in spite of any blips.

I bought this book as a two in one: Zero Option bundled with Stand by, Stand by ... I'll be reporting back on that shortly!

 

Duncan Williamson
24 December 2002