Last Light [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

Andy McNab (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 2002

Nick Stone is a deniable asset to British Intelligence. His refusal to assassinate an individual in the Houses of Parliament leads to a chilling ultimatum from his bosses. Either he finishes the job, or Kelly, the 11-year old girl in his guardianship, will surely die.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The fourth in a series of Nick Stone thrillers (after the well-received Firewall), this one gets off to an exciting if typical start as freelance assassin and ex-British SAS agent Stone orchestrates a precision team hit on a high-level target attending a snobby dessert social on the banks of the Thames. The target is to be identified by the team leader, Yes Man, who is to tap the victim on the left shoulder and wait for the snipers to do the dirty work. At the moment of contact, without explanation, Yes Man compromises the mission, and the police end up killing the three snipers. Stone is inexplicably given a second chance to complete his assignment alone by "last light Friday" at the victim's fortified home near the Panama Canal Zone. At this point (if not earlier), the novel loses coherence, dwelling on Stone's encounters with an aging tree-hugger college professor, his ganja-smoking young wife and their adopted daughter, who provide him with weapons and a base of operations in the Panamanian rain forest. Among Stone's spine-tingling preoccupations in Panama are chigger bites, a nagging headache and his nonstop guzzling of water, and there is a plethora of dialogue-driven exposition about Noriega's overthrow and the ruin of the rain forests. More choir boy than cold-blooded killer, Stone is given to mawkish introspection and invites self-destruction by confessing all sorts of sins to his colleagues. Most readers will be praying for an early sunset.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Former British special services agent Nick Stone, now a freelancer, never fails to come through. This time, though, as he's manning the controls for a sanctioned, three-sniper assassination at a Houses of Parliament function, he chokes. Seems that his target is a boy, and his human side causes him to abort the operation. This doesn't sit well with his bosses, of course, and Nick figures he will be their next victim. But his life is spared on one condition: he must carry out the original assignment on his own. His punishment if he fails again is certain death, but even more excruciating is the bosses' threat to kill Kelly, the 13-year-old for whom Nick acts as guardian and who witnessed her family's execution in McNab's first novel, Remote Control (1999). The target is the son of a Chinese businessman with apparent ties to Colombian guerrillas, and as Nick gets closer to grasping the plot that led a legitimate government to hire an assassin, he becomes the hunted as well as the hunter. While traipsing through Central American jungles (leading to a climactic scene at the Panama Canal), Nick is haunted by the image of Kelly being in danger, motivating him to make some tough, life-altering choices. An exciting story line, believable dialogue, and a flawed but honorable hero converge in what is clearly the best Nick Stone adventure yet. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Harpercollins Pb; Abridged edition (September 16, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007145330
• ISBN-13: 978-0007145331
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 4.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, not great., October 18, 2002

By 

Jeremy "63271864410" (Dublin, US, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Last Light: A Nick Stone Mission (Hardcover)

So far I have had difficulty putting McNab's books down. Last Light was different - the book did meander a little on more than one occassion and admittedly I read about a third of the book and I wasn't really motivated to come back to it for several weeks.

I did enjoy it while I read it, but there was in general something missing from Last Light that was present in McNab's previous books. The story is good, but not great. Several chapters are a little on the dull side (maybe 'dull' is the wrong word and 'less gripping' is better) and at the end of the book I felt that not enough had really happened from cover to cover.

Personally, I found the climax a little disappointing and less intense than McNab's previous writings. The ending chapter seemed somewhat disconnected from the story itself and more of a re-introduction to the usual beat of the series, but even this failed to capture some of the more touching moments we've previously witnessed with Nick Stone's softer side.

If you're a McNab fan like me, then get this book. You won't be disappointed and you'll remain up to date with the life of Nick Stone. However, this book feels to me to be more of a 'standalone' than part of the Nick Stone series and you'll feel that this isn't quite going to fill the gap as you await the next update.

If you don't know of McNab, I can well recommend earlier Nick Stone books first as I feel that any interest you may potentially have in following this character may not be sparked up by Last Light. I can well recommend Firewall (best novel I ever read) for ultimate excitement, but there is benefit to starting at the beginning of the series too.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More real action in each chapter than most authors..., February 9, 2006

By 

Robert Hazelwood (Arizona USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Light: A Nick Stone Mission (Hardcover)

... produce in a lifetime. Mr. McNab's SAS training and the degree to which he absorbed it and can recreate that type of thinking on the page combine to make a nearly unparalleled reading experience. His protagonists are far more capable, observant, knowledgeable, experienced, and (his term) switched-on than any I've met in other books. There is simply no comparison between how Nick Stone here sees, thinks, and works, and how your average thriller author imagines it might go. Last Light is so dense with pure thought, planning, detail, and tradecraft that I could hardly point to an outstanding passage. It's all good. That people like Mr. McNab exist and can do what he describes so expertly is astonishing. Thanks so much for putting this on paper, Mr. McNab. And by the way - you and your mates are awesome. Glad you're in our camp.

Having said all that, this book does suffer from plot super-sizing. Just as in Crisis Four, Mr. McNab creates a huge conspiracy within which his agent thrashes around, and which the author simply can't resolve. It's too bad because if he just crafted the story of some mission without global complications it would be a jewel. As it is, Last Light abruptly ends in confused mid-plot. Why can't Nick be on a legit SAS mission instead of having it all forced out of him by the powers that be?

And the backstory of Kelly, which I suppose is there to make Nick more of a person (and to provide plot hooks) soon becomes tiresome. I'm not interested in Nick Stone as a struggling surrogate father - but I'll be reading every page I can find describing him in the field. It's just too good to miss.

An added benny of Mr. McNab's writing is that you get some thoughtful and highly observant commentary on the environments in which his agent moves. Last Light taught me a lot about Panama and the Canal situation. The downside to his books is that you can't face another action novel for a while, because you know that even a good one will be dishwater next to this.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nick Stone the Human, not Nick Stone the Soldier, August 21, 2003

By 

David Hassall (Wichita, KS) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Last Light: A Nick Stone Mission (Mass Market Paperback)

Last Light is the fourth in the series of books written by Andy McNab. The whole series of books is great and this is no exception. Andy McNab obviously decided when writing this book that he needed to give his character some extra depth. In this book we see Nick Stone make some serious human decisions.

After reading this book you come away with a lesson in survival, in a way it teaches you jungle tracking skills and gives you a good insight into how special operations are coordinated. If you're an SAS or any kind of Special Forces enthusiast it's a good read just to get inside the mind of a professional elite soldier.

I enjoyed this book greatly, the plot keeps you guessing, and its never obvious what's going to happen. Am not going to spoil the book am sure if you want to find out what its about you just read the Amazon.com review but if you enjoyed the rest of the Nick Stone series this book is going to make you very happy.

4 Stars