Product Description

Nick Stone left the Special Air Service in 1988, soon after being involved in the shooting of three IRA terrorists in Gibraltar.  Now working for British Intelligence on deniable operations, he discovers the seemingly senseless murders of fellow SAS soldier Kev Brown and his family in Washington, DC.  Only seven-year-old Kelly has survived--and immediately the unlikely pair are on the run from unidentified pursuers.



On his own, Stone would stand a chance of escape.  But, needing to protect the girl, he is hamstrung.  Together they are plunged into a dark world of violence and corruption in which friends and enemies are indistinguishable.



Gritty, original, vivid and menacing--in the hands of Andy McNab the action thriller moves into another dimension.  Other thriller writers talk and talk.  Only McNab has walked the walk.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2313701 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02-17
• Released on: 1998-02-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

From Amazon.com
Don't expect to see Andy McNab's photograph on the cover of his first thriller, Remote Control--the former British Special Air Service agent says both the Colombian drug cartel and the Provisional IRA still have contracts out on him. His two nonfiction books, Bravo Two Zero and Immediate Action, give more detail about his prolific past.

Remote Control is the fictional story of an SAS agent named Nick Stone, who is on the case of two Irish terrorists. He follows them across the Atlantic to Washington, D.C., but is suddenly ordered back home on the next available flight. His old mate Kevin Brown, now with the Drug Enforcement Agency, lives near the airport, so Nick decides to drop in. He finds a slaughterhouse: Kev, his wife, and youngest daughter have been battered to death, but daughter Kelly has survived in a special hideout. Prying information from the shocked child, Nick links the killers to either the CIA, the DEA, or his own organization--which means that he and Kelly are virtually on their own. As Nick trundles the spunky youngster from one seedy motel to another, stuffs her with junk food, and teaches her the rudiments of spy craft, he also begins to piece together a picture of why Kevin and his family were killed. There is a connection between a terrorist bomb scare in Gibraltar in 1988, the Colombian drug cartel, and high-level intelligence-agency skullduggery. McNab keeps dropping those shiny nuggets of believability along the trail and winds up holding our attention until the predictable but satisfying end. --Dick Adler

From Publishers Weekly
A rogue Special Air Service agent on the lam in suburban America with the seven-year-old daughter of a murdered colleague. Sounds like the latest Bruce Willis vehicle, costarring that little girl from the Pepsi commercials. But McNab, a former SAS agent himself and author of two nonfiction books on the subject, manages to balance the clich?s and cuteness with large doses of tradecraft taken from his 17 years of undercover experience. When Nick Stone describes how to maintain a fictitious address or reveals the secrets of tracing a call made from a public telephone, the details ring trueAand help get us over some of the more ludicrous speed bumps in his story. Stone, tracking two Irish terrorists from London to Washington, is suddenly ordered back home on the next available flight. His old mate Kevin Brown, now with the Drug Enforcement Agency, lives nearby, so Nick decides to drop in. He finds a slaughterhouse: Kev, his wife, and youngest daughter have been murdered, but daughter Kelly has survived in a special hideout. Prying information from the shocked child, Stone links the killers to either the CIA, the DEA or his own organizationAwhich means that he and Kelly are on the run from everybody. As Nick trundles the spunky youngster from one seedy motel to another, stuffs her with junk food and teaches her the rudiments of espionage, he puts together a picture of why Kevin and his family were killedAa connection between a terrorist bomb scare in Gibraltar in 1988, the Colombian drug cartel and high-level intelligence agency skullduggery. The vast network of sinister collaborations isn't startling, but McNab reliably delivers the believable, real-life details and keeps readers' attention with steady, careful prose until the predictable but satisfying end. (June) FYI: Remote Control was the number one bestseller in London's Sunday Times for seven weeks. Because of McNab's SAS involvement, and his wanted status by several terrorist groups, he makes no public appearances.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Aside from slight word usage and Ric Jerrom's British accent, there's little difference between this explosive novel and one written by American authors like Tom Clancy. You might even say this British writer moves things along faster. Nick Stone, a British Intelligence operative and his friend, Kev Brown, foil an attempted bombing by remote control; later Stone stumbles into the aftermath of the murder of Brown and most of Brown's family. Jerrom's cockney at first gets in the way, but his crisp businesslike reading soon has one concentrating on the plot. Jerrom's a credible agent and a whiny 8-year-old. His only failing is an occasional pause in the middle of a sentence. A.L.H. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine