Ultimatum

Confirms Frank Gardner’s place among the pantheon of distinguished reporters who have become excellent thriller writers, including Gerald Seymour and Frederick Forsyth … utterly authentic … it grips like a python from the first page, squeezing the breath out of the reader. * DAILY MAIL *Outstanding. * SUNDAY TIMES *Frank Gardner’s second thriller is even closer than his first, Crisis, to dealing with the world’s most immediate fears … current international events do not necessarily turn into exciting novels, but Gardner skilfully mixes knowledge garnered as the BBC’s security correspondent with breathless action. – Marcel Berlins * THE TIMES *Lots of twists and turns and a surprise ending. Good stuff. – Frederick Forsyth * DAILY MAIL *Crisis, the debut two years ago by the BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, was much admired, and the second in his Luke Carlton series is even better … its themes of Iranian bomb production and divisions in the country’s elite have great topicality. – John Dugdale * SUNDAY TIMES ‘Thriller of the Month’ *A terrifying and topical novel … Gardner’s style is addictive … [his] riveting plot really does illuminate both the past and today’s headlines. It would be a spoiler to reveal the shocking climax, but there is a hint of more to come: roll on novel three. – Marina Vaizey * THE ARTS DESK *It’s no surprise that a BBC correspondent should write knowledgeably, but this action-packed thriller has a rare authority and authenticity. * LITERARY REVIEW *Gardner … tells the story with a verve and expertise born of long experience of the subject … convincingly authentic. It is the thriller writer’s trick to blur the boundary between current affairs and invention, to make the unthinkable thinkable and exciting. In this, Gardner succeeds triumphantly. * COUNTRY AND TOWN HOUSE MAGAZINE *‘Confirms Frank Gardner’s place among the pantheon of distinguished reporters who have become excellent thriller writers, including Gerald Seymour and Frederick Forsyth … utterly authentic … it grips like a python from the first page, squeezing the breath out of the reader.’ * DAILY MAIL *A terrifying and topical novel … Gardner’s style is addictive … [his] riveting plot really does illuminate both the past and today’s headlines. It would be a spoiler to reveal the shocking climax, but there is a hint of more to come: roll on novel three. – Marina Vaizey * THE ARTS DESK *

Born in 1961, Frank Gardner has been the BBC’s Security Correspondent since 2002. He holds a degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies. In 2004, while filming in Saudi Arabia, he was ambushed by terrorists, shot multiple times and left for dead. He survived and returned to active news reporting within a year. He still travels extensively. Awarded an OBE in 2005 for services to journalism, Frank published his bestselling memoir, Blood and Sand, in 2006. His first novel, the thriller Crisis, which introduced readers to SIS operative Luke Carlton, was a No.1 bestseller. The second Luke Carlton thriller, Ultimatum, was also a Sunday Times top 10 bestseller, as was the third, Outbreak. Frank Gardner lives in London.