In his third outing (following Remote Control and Crisis Four), Nick Stone, Andy McNab's series SAS agent, is off the Firm's regular payroll owing to a major screwup in his last assignment that left his best friend's family slaughtered--except for the one child who survived. Little Kelly needs expensive treatment for the post-traumatic stress that's turned her nearly catatonic, so Nick takes on a freelance assignment that gets him mixed up with Russian organized crime--in particular, with an enigmatic mob boss who has designs on some Finnish cybertechnology. When Nick realizes it's not industrial espionage that he's involved with but military secrets, he's caught between warring factions of the Russian Mafia and the Anglo-American alliance of intelligence agencies. The Westerners will do anything to keep the Echelon program out of the hands of Valentin Lebed--the Chechnyan Mafioso who makes Nick an offer he can't refuse--and the Maliskia, a gang of rival Russian criminals who want to derail Lebed's plans and take over Echelon themselves.

The action ranges from Helsinki to St. Petersburg to London, the weaponry is fully detailed, and the techniques of infiltration and retrieval carefully outlined; McNab, a former SAS commando who, according to the author's note "is still wanted by a number of terrorist organizations and is therefore forbidden to reveal his face or current location," obviously remembers every ache, pain, bruise, and injury he suffered in his life of derring-do, since they're all completely and graphically described here, too. --Jane Adams


From Publishers Weekly
This is McNab's third Nick Stone novel, and when you factor in all the times that Stone is stalked, betrayed, mugged, drugged, beaten, frozen to within an inch of his life and nearly blown to bits, it's a wonder the stoic British ex-SAS (special forces) operative is still alive. In many ways, Stone is the perfect thriller hero: someone strong enough to absorb punishment, smart enough to game plan the details of the job and just enough of a line soldier not to ask too many questions about his assignment. Just to make sure, McNab (himself a former SAS agent) gives Stone the perfect reason not to be inquisitive: his ward, Kelly, is catatonic with post-traumatic stress disorder, and since her treatment is wildly expensive, Stone finds himself in the middle of a totally unprofessional kidnapping of Russian mafia kingpin Valentin Lebed in Helsinki. When it all goes violently wrong, Stone lets Lebed go for a price, and leaps at the chance to earn even more money when Lebed's attractive assistant, Liv, gives him another assignment: break into a Finnish safe house for a little software theft. It will come as no surprise that the theft puts Stone in the gunsights of the NSA and the Russian mob. Most of the novel is a record of Stone bouncing between a rock and a hard place, trying to complete his mission, avoid capture and stay alive, with McNab's real-life adventures the source for Stone's. In this genre, all plans are made to fail, except perhaps McNab's plan to take the thriller world by storm. (July)Forecast: Because of his work for SAS, McNab cannot appear in public, so author tours are a no-go, but extensive advertising and promotion plans back up this solid thriller and will increase sales. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
After cash-hungry Nick Stone agrees to pry a Russian mob boss from his fortified hotel room in Helsinki and drag him back to St. Petersburg, he finds himself in the middle of a Russian offensive to relaunch the Cold War. McNab, the author of best sellers like Remote Control, is a former member of the British SAS who, the publicity proudly proclaims, is still wanted by terrorists and must keep his whereabouts a secret. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Listening to Clive Mantle's reading of this international thriller is like watching a Michael Caine/Harry Palmer movie--only it's even more exciting. That's because Mantle is a Michael Caine sound-alike, and when his principal character, Nick Stone, goes into action, one thinks of Harry Palmer. Stone, an ex-SAS operative working for British Intelligence on a contract basis, just cannot stay out of trouble. In order to make some extra money for a noble cause, Stone gets involved in a botched kidnapping, which leads him into a conspiracy. Mantle's South-London accent suitably portrays Stone, and his foreign characters are totally believable. McNab's latest, with Mantle's addition, is a cliff-hanger from beginning to end. A.L.H. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
With the fall of the Soviet Union, organized crime in Russia has replaced Iron Curtain espionage as a plot staple for thriller writers. Former SAS member McNab joins the parade with this tale starring freelance spy Nick Stone, a former British agent whose past miscues have him on the outside looking in and taking life-and-death risks to survive in the New World Order. McNab's tale of international intrigue is gritty and cold, much like the terrain it covers. The plot is at times clunky, with too much build-up to too little pay-off. Still, the book offers a compelling look at espionage in the era of the Russian mob warlords, and it exposes the inner workings of a world driven by power and money, where the degree of ruthlessness seems to have escalated to a nearly unimaginable level. Despite its flaws, Firewall is a fast and often compelling read; if McNab's narrative skills ever match his command of his subject, he could become an A-list thriller writer. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
John Case, author of the New York Times bestseller The Genesis Code "Action-packed and authentic in every detail, [he] gives us a hero who's at least as scary as the villains. Andy McNab is the real deal and a rare commodity -- a hard guy who knows how to write."


Book Description

If he hadn't needed the cash so badly, Nick Stone would never have messed with the Russian mafia. But the lucrative offer was one he couldn't refuse. The job seemed simple enough for a man of his particular talents: kidnap a ruthless, money-laundering mob boss from his fortified Helsinki hotel room and deliver him to St. Petersburg. But as the plan begins to unfold, Stone soon realizes that by no means has he been told the full story.

Catapulted into the bleak underworld of the former Soviet republic of Estonia, where unknown aggressors stalk the arctic landscape, Stone finds that the mob may now turn out to be the least of his problems. Russia has embarked on a new Cold War offensive -- hacking into the West's computer systems and stealing their most coveted military secrets. As one bloody double cross leads to another, Stone finds himself caught between the suicidal schemes of the British and American intelligence agencies and the ruthless Russians who want to silence him.


Download Description
"If he hadn't needed the cash so badly, Nick Stone would never have messed with the Russian mafia. But the lucrative offer was one he couldn't refuse. The job seemed simple enough for a man of his particular talents: kidnap a ruthless, money-laundering mob boss from his fortified Helsinki hotel room and deliver him to St. Petersburg. But as the plan begins to unfold, Stone soon realizes that by no means has he been told the full story. Catapulted into the bleak underworld of the former Soviet republic of Estonia, where unknown aggressors stalk the arctic landscape, Stone finds that the mob may now turn out to be the least of his problems. Russia has embarked on a new Cold War offensive -- hacking into the West's computer systems and stealing their most coveted military secrets. As one bloody double cross leads to another, Stone finds himself caught between the suicidal schemes of the British and American intelligence agencies and the ruthless Russians who want to silence him. "

FROM THE PUBLISHER

If he hadn't needed the cash so badly, Nick Stone would never have messed with the Russian mafia. But the lucrative offer was one he couldn't refuse. The job seemed simple enough for a man of his particular talents: kidnap a ruthless, money-laundering mob boss from his fortified Helsinki hotel room and deliver him to St. Petersburg. But as the plan begins to unfold, Stone soon realizes that by no means has he been told the full story.

Catapulted into the bleak underworld of the former Soviet republic of Estonia, where unknown aggressors stalk the arctic landscape, Stone finds that the mob may now turn out to be the least of his problems. Russia has embarked on a new Cold War offensive—hacking into the West's computer systems and stealing their most coveted military secrets. As one bloody double cross leads to another, Stone finds himself caught between the suicidal schemes of the British and American intelligence agencies and the ruthless Russians who want to silence him.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

After cash-hungry Nick Stone agrees to pry a Russian mob boss from his fortified hotel room in Helsinki and drag him back to St. Petersburg, he finds himself in the middle of a Russian offensive to relaunch the Cold War. McNab, the author of best sellers like Remote Control, is a former member of the British SAS who, the publicity proudly proclaims, is still wanted by terrorists and must keep his whereabouts a secret. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile

Listening to Clive Mantle's reading of this international thriller is like watching a Michael Caine/Harry Palmer movie--only it's even more exciting. That's because Mantle is a Michael Caine sound-alike, and when his principal character, Nick Stone, goes into action, one thinks of Harry Palmer. Stone, an ex-SAS operative working for British Intelligence on a contract basis, just cannot stay out of trouble. In order to make some extra money for a noble cause, Stone gets involved in a botched kidnapping, which leads him into a conspiracy. Mantle's South-London accent suitably portrays Stone, and his foreign characters are totally believable. McNab's latest, with Mantle's addition, is a cliff-hanger from beginning to end. A.L.H. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

A sweet one. McNab writes like a dream, having produced fiction (Remote Control and Crisis Four, neither reviewed) and nonfiction about Britain's Special Air Service. He retired in 1993 as the British Army's most highly decorated serving soldier. Nick Stone, McNab's stand-in, has a rich backstory by now: His nine-year-old adoptive daughter's mental troubles cost him $4,000 weekly, and he must survive the Firm's black view of his debacles at the White House and elsewhere. So he takes on a bloody task that at first looks easy: to set up a snatch in Helsinki and bring a visiting Russian Mafia kingpin to St. Petersburg. Should he slip up, ROC (Russian Organized Crime) will treat him to Viking's Revenge—disembowelment, with his innards squirming on his chest for him to mull over during his half hour spent dying. The kingpin, Valentin Lebed, and other ROC members launder £20 billion yearly through London banks, and some London banking execs want Val shipped off to St. Petersburg, where he can be persuaded to make even sweeter deals with them. McNab's wiser fans, feeling slightly above the low mental power of Nick's Russian helpmates, will soon foresee a tangle-footed, ruinous orgy in the kidnap. Or as Nick thinks, "Basically, I accepted that I was going to die, and anything beyond that was a bonus." As always, the snatch goes bad—very bad—and Nick winds up changing teams when offered a London payoff from Lebed, now his vastly wealthy prisoner. In London, Lebed pays him $100 trillion, then hires him to get a hacker into a Finnish house to download a "commercial" program for a payoff of an additional $3 million in a Luxembourg account. The program? Well, it's the"Echelon dictionaries," McNab's Maltese Falcon. Throat-clutching action, authentic scenarios, spectacular precision. Death zings its old sweet song as slugs sing off your Kevlar.

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