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Book Review: 'Silencer' by Andy McNab

The drugs trade is a vicious one, steeped in violence and secrecy, but Andy McNab knows just what he’s talking about in the pulse-pounding thriller Silencer

They say truth is stranger than fiction — and I’m inclined to believe it. The first thing you’re bound to notice about an action thriller author like Andy McNab is the extreme attention to detail — in terms of the kind of weapons used, medical knowledge, escape tactics etc — but that’s because it isn’t so much research showing as it is experience talking.

McNab himself has lived an extraordinary life — having served in the army, waging war against the IRA, working as an SAS sergeant for nine years and commanding the distinguished patrol Bravo Two Zero during the Gulf War. In other words, you just can’t make this stuff up — and this is one writer who doesn’t need to go further than his own head for a wellspring of insights into the world of covert operations and war.

In Silencer, McNab brings his favourite ex-military man back for the 15^th time — but no one’s complaining. Nick Stone is a paid mercenary these days, trying to put his all-guns-blazing days behind him and settle down, now that he’s become a father. But trouble has always sought him out, even when he’s trying to keep his head down. And true to form, this time, it’s the sudden disappearance of his baby’s doc Katya that sends Nick into a search-and-rescue op he can’t ignore — from the trafficking rings of Moldova to the illegal trade of 
human organs in Hong Kong and the drug cartels of Mexico — bec-ause finding Katya is the only way to keep his family alive.

Nick reminds you of how differently people are wired. This line of work that has him constantly dancing with death and danger is what he gets his kicks from the most. The ‘normal life’ just isn’t for him, no matter how badly he wants to share it with his partner and child. I liked that, for the very first time, a hero struggles to hang on to his lady love — that even at 
the end, their relationship status is still ‘Pending’, just because, in the real world, not everybody gets to kiss, make up and drive off into the sunset.

The other characters are just as real in their portrayal: Anna, as she withdraws gradually from Nick for the safety of their child; Dino, his former mate, the pitiable picture of self-destruction as a result of meth and post-traumatic stress disorder in equal parts; the mysterious Katya, whose disappearance sparks this latest mission 
in the first place… and the villainous 
mother-son duo who run the drug cartels. I’ll leave you to find out just how sick in the head these two are, but you can’t have a great protagonist without an equally strong anti-hero to hold him up — and the Orjuelas are psychotic enough to turn your stomach twice over 
(because you know there are kingpins just as loony out there).

The language is snappy, humorous in places, figurative in others (“The riot of brass and multicoloured fabric that hit me as soon as I’d crossed the threshold was like an artist’s impression of a migraine”). The only annoyance, if I 
had to nitpick, was his repetition of clever phrases that lost their charm eventually because of the number of times they were used. Why an editor didn’t highlight a certain phrase when it showed up for the sixth time in a row and rephrase it, I’ll never know.

But if you’re looking for an action 
thriller, Andy McNab would not be a bad way to go. His description of the way things work on the ground is as real as it gets — and there’s nothing like listening to a story spun by someone who knows what he’s talking about. - karen@khaleejtimes.com