With the fall of the Soviet Union, the ability to track all the nuclear warheads has become ever more difficult. Now four warheads have been sold to a group of terrorists who are looking to convert them to suitcase bombs that can be used in western cities around the globe. The camp where this is begin carried out is spotted on surveillance and soon several agencies are trying to determine what course of action they should take and who else they should inform, without giving way any information they may have. While this dance plays out, American analyst Scott Morgan picks up the pieces and works with his brother, Lt Colonel Ed Morgan and the dangers he has found and the limited time they have to do anything. Calling in several favours and trusting his brother, Ed Morgan plans out an audacious raid from America, crossing the Atlantic and flying into Iran to destroy the camp before the bombs can be assembled and the only chance of stopping them is lost.

This is a thrilling novel that revels in the fine details and military equipment that goes into the possibilities of the actions taken. Plot wise, it appears to draw inspiration from many long range bombing attacks that have taken place, but still encompasses plenty of it’s own action. The plot starts with the discovery of the site and the actions of the various secret services and how they operate before switching to the military operation to destroy it. At each part there is a level of technical terminology that can be a little overwhelming and this contributes to the feeling i am reading something more akin to a mission report than a story. This was even more obvious when it came to the dialogue in the book, which came across as natural and engaging, while the story is little dry. The dialogue is where the characters really come to life and their interactions feel like the main driver to push the actions along. The story is highly descriptive, but it concentrates more on the military, the machinery and the mission than giving a feeling of how these people are operating.

I did find amusing that the issues are being solved by single people talking to each other and that the main services spend a lot of their time not talking to each other to save face or pretend that things are not occurring, because then they would have to do something about it.

If you enjoy lots of technical detail and watching a mission unfold with exquisite precision and deadly consequences should it fail, then this is the story for you. While I did enjoy it, if you are put off by the technical detail, then it is still worth skimming, if only for the conversations than brighten the story. If you do enjoy it, then there are several others by the author in the same vein that you will like.