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Luke Carlton #5
Ballistic
In the dying light of an Arctic afternoon a monstrous black shape slips beneath the Arctic waters of Murmansk bay. The Novorussiya is one of Russia's most advanced nuclear submarines, and she is carrying something that could change the world order forever . . .
Kilometres to the south, at a military base hidden in the sub-zero forests of Arctic Russia, a lone figure steps out into a swirl of snow. Unseen, Major Orlov trudges to a distant corner of the base and retrieves a hidden transmitter. Because Orlov is a double-agent, and he knows all about the Novorussiya and what she’s carrying, and the time has come to alert his handler in London. He also knows that a net of suspicion is closing in. He wants out. And fast.
MI6 operative Luke Carlton is dispatched to help with Orlov’s extraction across the border into Finland, teaming up with Finnish Special Forces officer Sini Järvinen. It's then that things start to go horribly wrong . . .
As tensions between the West and Russia ratchet up and reach fever pitch, Luke and his Finnish accomplice are caught in a race against time to unearth the secrets of Moscow’s latest weapon before it’s too late. Breathlessly exciting, frighteningly authentic and unnervingly prescient, Ballistic is Frank Gardner proving once again that he's one of the best in the international thriller business.
Kilometres to the south, at a military base hidden in the sub-zero forests of Arctic Russia, a lone figure steps out into a swirl of snow. Unseen, Major Orlov trudges to a distant corner of the base and retrieves a hidden transmitter. Because Orlov is a double-agent, and he knows all about the Novorussiya and what she’s carrying, and the time has come to alert his handler in London. He also knows that a net of suspicion is closing in. He wants out. And fast.
MI6 operative Luke Carlton is dispatched to help with Orlov’s extraction across the border into Finland, teaming up with Finnish Special Forces officer Sini Järvinen. It's then that things start to go horribly wrong . . .
As tensions between the West and Russia ratchet up and reach fever pitch, Luke and his Finnish accomplice are caught in a race against time to unearth the secrets of Moscow’s latest weapon before it’s too late. Breathlessly exciting, frighteningly authentic and unnervingly prescient, Ballistic is Frank Gardner proving once again that he's one of the best in the international thriller business.
- GenresFiction
394 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2026
About the author
Frank Gardner
15 books133 followersBBC’s fulltime Security Correspondent reporting on events from Afghanistan to piracy off the Somali coast to Arctic challenges. Shot 6 times at close range while on assignment in Saudi Arabia in 2004, left severely wounded and dependant on a wheelchair. Awarded an OBE by HM The Queen in 2005. Author of 2 bestselling books ‘Blood and Sand’ describing his Middle East experiences and ‘Far Horizons’ describing unusual journeys to unusual places. Married with 2 children, lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 11, 2026
The world is a dangerous place, America has pulled out of NATO and intelligence sharing, so, when a Russian nuclear sub launches a ballistic missile in the middle of the Arctic all hell breaks loose. Luke Carlton is sent on an urgent mission to extract a Russian defector who may have answers to the growing threat, but not everyone is whom they seem. Can Luke prevent Armageddon?
Another fantastic, page turning thriller from the BBC’s Frank Gardner. You wonder how far away we are from the world projected in the book. Scary stuff.
Another fantastic, page turning thriller from the BBC’s Frank Gardner. You wonder how far away we are from the world projected in the book. Scary stuff.
August 4, 2026
Realtime Espionage Action
Full disclosure: I've known Frank Gardner for 25 years or more. We were both colleagues at the BBC, for whom Frank continues to work to this day.
I've always thought that his voice reeks of gravitas and good breeding. His beat - broadly speaking, geopolitics, security, and espionage - mirrors my own interests.
For pleasurable reading nothing hits the spot for me quite like a good thriller. The works of Graham Greene and John le Carré are my bread-and-butter but there are others writing incredibly up-to-date novels, often based on knowledge they acquire in the course of their so-called day jobs. Frank, of course, is a case in point.
Having read his previous works, I was keen - so keen that I pre-ordered Ballistic as soon as the pre-orders opened - knowing that I had to find out what happened next to Luke Carlton, the hero of Frank's spy novels. He's an MI6 officer, an ex-Royal Marine and ex-SBS, who gets himself into all sorts of scrapes around the globe; he has to contend not only with people torturing him with electric shocks but also a boss class at the Secret Intelligence Service that is not always as supportive or sympathetic to its staff as it might be. And their political masters, in turn, are even more preoccupied with saving their own skins and pursuing their own agendas, sometimes endangering field officers who are at the sharp end of geopolitical friction.
In this adventure Luke finds himself having to undergo some sort of psychological reassessment following a decision he had made that brought a previous operation in the Far East to a rather sticky end. No sooner does he knuckle down to a regime of talking therapies and jogging in the driving Scottish rain than the notorious C collars him for a new and dangerous mission on the Finnish-Russian border.
The action that plays out almost results in his own death and soon has him jetting off to Tobago in the Caribbean on the trail of a Russian ballistics expert.
The action moves along really briskly: I think there are something like 120+ chapters, all of which are short and written very much like Frank's own news dispatches for the BBC.
There are twists and turns aplenty right up to the last page. It wouldn't be the done thing to spoil the novel for those who haven't yet had the pleasure; suffice it to say that Luke will no doubt dust himself off and undertake another mission whenever Frank gets time to put pen to paper, while covering real-life news in what is now a very unpredictable geopolitical landscape.
The narrative is bang up to date - taking in the war in Ukraine and Trump's war against Iran. It's projected slightly into the future - a future that leaves Europe rather insecure when after its powerful, transatlantic ally has walked away from NATO, leaving the Europeans to fend for themselves.
This is a fabulous novel for a long plane or train journey or even a road trip - in my case I listened to the audiobook with my wife; we always have a book on the go in the car, and take turns to choose. Having a novel read by the author themselves carries an extra layer of credibility and authority.
Full disclosure: I've known Frank Gardner for 25 years or more. We were both colleagues at the BBC, for whom Frank continues to work to this day.
I've always thought that his voice reeks of gravitas and good breeding. His beat - broadly speaking, geopolitics, security, and espionage - mirrors my own interests.
For pleasurable reading nothing hits the spot for me quite like a good thriller. The works of Graham Greene and John le Carré are my bread-and-butter but there are others writing incredibly up-to-date novels, often based on knowledge they acquire in the course of their so-called day jobs. Frank, of course, is a case in point.
Having read his previous works, I was keen - so keen that I pre-ordered Ballistic as soon as the pre-orders opened - knowing that I had to find out what happened next to Luke Carlton, the hero of Frank's spy novels. He's an MI6 officer, an ex-Royal Marine and ex-SBS, who gets himself into all sorts of scrapes around the globe; he has to contend not only with people torturing him with electric shocks but also a boss class at the Secret Intelligence Service that is not always as supportive or sympathetic to its staff as it might be. And their political masters, in turn, are even more preoccupied with saving their own skins and pursuing their own agendas, sometimes endangering field officers who are at the sharp end of geopolitical friction.
In this adventure Luke finds himself having to undergo some sort of psychological reassessment following a decision he had made that brought a previous operation in the Far East to a rather sticky end. No sooner does he knuckle down to a regime of talking therapies and jogging in the driving Scottish rain than the notorious C collars him for a new and dangerous mission on the Finnish-Russian border.
The action that plays out almost results in his own death and soon has him jetting off to Tobago in the Caribbean on the trail of a Russian ballistics expert.
The action moves along really briskly: I think there are something like 120+ chapters, all of which are short and written very much like Frank's own news dispatches for the BBC.
There are twists and turns aplenty right up to the last page. It wouldn't be the done thing to spoil the novel for those who haven't yet had the pleasure; suffice it to say that Luke will no doubt dust himself off and undertake another mission whenever Frank gets time to put pen to paper, while covering real-life news in what is now a very unpredictable geopolitical landscape.
The narrative is bang up to date - taking in the war in Ukraine and Trump's war against Iran. It's projected slightly into the future - a future that leaves Europe rather insecure when after its powerful, transatlantic ally has walked away from NATO, leaving the Europeans to fend for themselves.
This is a fabulous novel for a long plane or train journey or even a road trip - in my case I listened to the audiobook with my wife; we always have a book on the go in the car, and take turns to choose. Having a novel read by the author themselves carries an extra layer of credibility and authority.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Book 5 of a brilliant series. This one is scary because it feels very close to a possible truth.
In this book Russia is becoming more and more of a threat and may have a new weapon. The Ukraine war is ongoing and the issues with Iran and the Straight of Hormuz are mentioned as part of the background to the main storyline. This made it feel current and topical. MI6 have a Russian operative who is informing them and Luke Carlton is sent to the Russia/Finland border to extract him and bring him back to the UK.
This is just the start and this fast paced thriller takes us to all sorts of locations around the world before the threat is resolved and the storyline concluded. The book is a real page turner with the topical nature adding tension and an uncomfortable feeling that some of the narrative could actually happen. Whilst reading this book, I saw Frank Gardner talking on BBC news about an incident with the Russian navy off of our coast. I had a moment of 'is he telling us the news or talking about his book?'
Frank Gardner's career as security correspondent with the BBC undoubtedly aids his ability to write fiction with an element of truth which is political and reflects world events. This makes for a gripping read and I will be looking forward to Luke Carlton coming back in book 6. This book, and the whole series, are recommended to anyone who likes any type of thriller.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
In this book Russia is becoming more and more of a threat and may have a new weapon. The Ukraine war is ongoing and the issues with Iran and the Straight of Hormuz are mentioned as part of the background to the main storyline. This made it feel current and topical. MI6 have a Russian operative who is informing them and Luke Carlton is sent to the Russia/Finland border to extract him and bring him back to the UK.
This is just the start and this fast paced thriller takes us to all sorts of locations around the world before the threat is resolved and the storyline concluded. The book is a real page turner with the topical nature adding tension and an uncomfortable feeling that some of the narrative could actually happen. Whilst reading this book, I saw Frank Gardner talking on BBC news about an incident with the Russian navy off of our coast. I had a moment of 'is he telling us the news or talking about his book?'
Frank Gardner's career as security correspondent with the BBC undoubtedly aids his ability to write fiction with an element of truth which is political and reflects world events. This makes for a gripping read and I will be looking forward to Luke Carlton coming back in book 6. This book, and the whole series, are recommended to anyone who likes any type of thriller.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
September 2, 2026
Very current and very topical, set in a potential very near future where the US has left NATO and are perusing a very America first agenda.
Luke Carlton is the main hero as per the previous novels, I’ve read them all. My memory has Carlton as a support guy getting involved in the front end, but he now has a military and SBS history that I don’t recall. Anyway, the Russians seem to have a mysterious new weapon and the West is desperate for details about what they may be facing. Carlton helps in the recovery of an agent on the Finnish border, but from there, everything goes wrong and Carlton ends up in a very dangerous situation that even his considerable skills may not be enough to get him out of.
I was enjoying this but it does fizzle out in the last quarter, some stuff that just seems illogical to the reader and a rushed finale to it all. Felt a bit like the author knew how he wanted to finish it but didn’t nail it in a way he would have wanted.
Luke Carlton is the main hero as per the previous novels, I’ve read them all. My memory has Carlton as a support guy getting involved in the front end, but he now has a military and SBS history that I don’t recall. Anyway, the Russians seem to have a mysterious new weapon and the West is desperate for details about what they may be facing. Carlton helps in the recovery of an agent on the Finnish border, but from there, everything goes wrong and Carlton ends up in a very dangerous situation that even his considerable skills may not be enough to get him out of.
I was enjoying this but it does fizzle out in the last quarter, some stuff that just seems illogical to the reader and a rushed finale to it all. Felt a bit like the author knew how he wanted to finish it but didn’t nail it in a way he would have wanted.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Given his background in journalism and his speciality in security it is not surprising that Frank Gardner is well briefed and totally up to date in his reading of the current geopolitical situation.
This helps him immeasurably wen it comes to his Luke Carlton series of book of which this is clearly the best to date.
It concentrates on the growing threat of Russia and its determination to impose itself and take advantage of a disunited Europe lacking the protection and technology of former Big Brother - the US.
The plot is devastating and dastardly and the excitement non-stop. There is a fair bit of technological jargon to wade through but Carlton comes through in the end aided and abetted by an incredible happening back in Mother Russia which I will not reveal.
Highly recommended.
This helps him immeasurably wen it comes to his Luke Carlton series of book of which this is clearly the best to date.
It concentrates on the growing threat of Russia and its determination to impose itself and take advantage of a disunited Europe lacking the protection and technology of former Big Brother - the US.
The plot is devastating and dastardly and the excitement non-stop. There is a fair bit of technological jargon to wade through but Carlton comes through in the end aided and abetted by an incredible happening back in Mother Russia which I will not reveal.
Highly recommended.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thanks to Frank and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book before the publication date.
This is the 5th book in the Luke Carlton series but reads equally well as a standalone book.
The author’s insight into politics is obvious throughout the book.
A page turner from the outset, this is a high octane, political thriller set in the not too distant future.
The global stage has changed dramatically.
Following events in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, the US has withdrawn from both the 5 Eyes Intelligence Sharing agreement and NATO. Now the US have partnered with Russia in Camp Friendship in Greenland.
ECTO has replaced NATO, albeit with much diminished resources. As the threat escalates, worrying cracks begin to appear in the alliance.
There are many interesting technical references throughout the book as various departments of the Armed Forces become involved.
This is the 5th book in the Luke Carlton series but reads equally well as a standalone book.
The author’s insight into politics is obvious throughout the book.
A page turner from the outset, this is a high octane, political thriller set in the not too distant future.
The global stage has changed dramatically.
Following events in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, the US has withdrawn from both the 5 Eyes Intelligence Sharing agreement and NATO. Now the US have partnered with Russia in Camp Friendship in Greenland.
ECTO has replaced NATO, albeit with much diminished resources. As the threat escalates, worrying cracks begin to appear in the alliance.
There are many interesting technical references throughout the book as various departments of the Armed Forces become involved.
September 3, 2026
Kind of rogue for me but I am back in my spy era and I once again want to be one. This book is set a few years from now and every detail feels chillingly plausible — US having withdrawn from NATO, Russia’s next move to target the Baltic states etc. I liked how it references very recent events like Maduro being captured in Jan — made it feel very real. I weirdly enjoyed the acronyms and techy speak; the author manages to make this secret and complex side of military and political activity very accessible to fools like me. The structure moves between places in each short chapter, like journalistic reports (Frank Gardner is a journo), which does a good job at replicating the pace of simultaneous, rapid political advancements. I especially enjoyed the Castara, Tobago setting, coz I know it
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
✨️Spoiler Free Review✨️
Thanks to @netgalley @frank.gardner
& @randomhousebooks for the ARC in return for my honest review.
Wow!
This is the 5th book in the Luke Carlton series & I could NOT put it down! It had me hooked from the outset, full of twists & turns, and non-stop action from start to finish!
It's very evident in this series what Frank's background is and he certainly knows his stuff! Great characters throughout and each was there for a reason.
Can be read as a standalone but definitely recommend reading the others!
Thanks to @netgalley @frank.gardner
& @randomhousebooks for the ARC in return for my honest review.
Wow!
This is the 5th book in the Luke Carlton series & I could NOT put it down! It had me hooked from the outset, full of twists & turns, and non-stop action from start to finish!
It's very evident in this series what Frank's background is and he certainly knows his stuff! Great characters throughout and each was there for a reason.
Can be read as a standalone but definitely recommend reading the others!
September 7, 2026
Frank Gardner is an author who never disappoints. I have read his fiction and his non-fiction writing and I have always found his books real page turners.
Luke Carlton's latest adventure is a fast paced, page turner. When you link an excellent author with his knowledge of current affairs you are bound to produce an exciting book. At times you are left wondering whether you are reading a novel or a news broadcast so close is this to current events.
My only disappointment was that the book was not longer. I do hope that there is another book soon.
Luke Carlton's latest adventure is a fast paced, page turner. When you link an excellent author with his knowledge of current affairs you are bound to produce an exciting book. At times you are left wondering whether you are reading a novel or a news broadcast so close is this to current events.
My only disappointment was that the book was not longer. I do hope that there is another book soon.
August 20, 2026
Frank Gardner has really nailed it.
Ballistic is another perfectly constructed, bang up to date read which was uncannily close to the mark in what could so easily have been real in an increasingly volatile world.
Another fast paced and cleverly thought through plot. I very much hope Mr.Gardner delivers the next Luke Carlton edition before too long.
Ballistic is another perfectly constructed, bang up to date read which was uncannily close to the mark in what could so easily have been real in an increasingly volatile world.
Another fast paced and cleverly thought through plot. I very much hope Mr.Gardner delivers the next Luke Carlton edition before too long.
August 25, 2026
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is the first Frank Gardner book I’ve read and it will not be the last. Very well written this is a fast and credible story from an author with an awesome depth of knowledge and experience.
September 16, 2026
EXCELLENT AND TOPICAL
FAST PACED AND ALWAYS CREDIBLE we look forward to the next adventure
His knowledge of the inner workings of government is impressive
FAST PACED AND ALWAYS CREDIBLE we look forward to the next adventure
His knowledge of the inner workings of government is impressive
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews