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One Man In: The Explosive Firsthand Account of the Lone Special-Ops Soldier Who Fought Off a Massive Terrorist Attack in Kenya
The gripping and heroic firsthand account—like American Sniper mixed with a real-life version of Die Hard—by an off-duty special forces soldier who battled against a terrorist attack for twenty-two hours, and saved scores of American, Kenyan, and European lives.
After an otherwise ordinary morning of training with his firearms, British SAS soldier Chris Craighead was just beginning to relax in his new home in the bustling city of Nairobi, Kenya. Then the phone rang.
It was a friend, a former British soldier. In the background, Chris heard gunfire. The friend gave the address of an upscale DusitD2 hotel and office complex in Nairobi’s affluent Westgate neighborhood. He said it was under attack.
Within minutes, Chris was in his pickup truck with his weapons case in the back seat, racing to the scene. For the next twenty-two hours, he relied on his nearly three decades of elite military training to win a deadly game of hide-and-seek with a unit of ethnic Somali terrorists who had already detonated one suicide bomb and were intent on killing as many other people as possible.
Told in white-knuckle, minute-by-minute detail, One Man In is an unforgettable true story of heroism from a special forces soldier who happened to be in the right place at the right time—and decided to act.
After an otherwise ordinary morning of training with his firearms, British SAS soldier Chris Craighead was just beginning to relax in his new home in the bustling city of Nairobi, Kenya. Then the phone rang.
It was a friend, a former British soldier. In the background, Chris heard gunfire. The friend gave the address of an upscale DusitD2 hotel and office complex in Nairobi’s affluent Westgate neighborhood. He said it was under attack.
Within minutes, Chris was in his pickup truck with his weapons case in the back seat, racing to the scene. For the next twenty-two hours, he relied on his nearly three decades of elite military training to win a deadly game of hide-and-seek with a unit of ethnic Somali terrorists who had already detonated one suicide bomb and were intent on killing as many other people as possible.
Told in white-knuckle, minute-by-minute detail, One Man In is an unforgettable true story of heroism from a special forces soldier who happened to be in the right place at the right time—and decided to act.
211 pages, Hardcover
First published July 20, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
September 14, 2022
For all the aparently uninformed ajd uneducated people.on here saying things like "a bunch of lies", or, "whitewashed crap", you should probably do a little research before putting your ridiculous opinions, which happen to be completely wrong, online for the world to see. This man did everything said in this book, qnd if you don't believe it a simple YouTube search could educate you a bit considering almost the entire ordeal was caught on camera. I mean there is literally video of him rescuing 100s of hostages. Even the local Kenyans were amazed at this foreigner who showed no fear and went back in over and over. He killed 2 of the attackers his self, and was the first person in when the counter attack operation started, he reentered the building, under fire, multiple times. So for all you uninformed people.out there talking about a white savior trying to use Africa ad a backdrop, well yeah. He most certainly was a savior that day, which any Kenyan that was there would 100 percent agree with, and this man is a true hero with more integrity and human decency then most of you could ever dream of. Be careful on here now. Your stupidity and racism is showing! Can't stand the fact a white man risked his life over and over again to save the lives of black people with no benefit or gain fir himself. Did it just because he had the skills and wanted to help, but that doesn't fit into your narrative of hate and victimhood mentality so here you are trying to claim this man did anything but write a book filled with nothing but facts and things that he really did, that has been verified time and time again by multiple outlets. Pathetic you would even try bashing this man just because of.his skin color... Man what is that called again? When you pass judgements on people based solely on their skin color?? Oh yeah that's right! Racist!! Which many of you ignorant fools most deffinitly are
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August 8, 2021British Special Forces Christ Craighead successfully lead an operation killing all Muslim terrorists who launched an unprovoked attack on innocent guests at a Kenyan hotel. He saved all the guests and killed all the Muslim terrorists. A true hero for our time.
January 8, 2023
Fantastic what humans are capable of.
December 17, 2023
The book is not even out yet, but there are already a bunch of folks spreading made-up racial bs about the man, who went in, towards the deadly threat to save people who were strangers to him.
Jesus Christ, people, get some life and grow up.
Jesus Christ, people, get some life and grow up.
August 8, 2022
How one man has so much courage to do something like this is just breathtaking.
Read
July 31, 2022Great book, what a hero!! He did what only Special Operators can b/c only they have the skills and the courage to do it. Fuck the libs who question it, fuck the terrorists-siding assholes who hate freedom. This is a great book, a true story of how ONE MAN can save hundreds of lives he doesn’t even know.
February 21, 2021
A piece of whitewashed crap , written for western audiences to see themselves as the white saviors.
September 18, 2026
compelling Reid, excellent storytelling.
Well, normally not a non-fiction reader, this book drew me in, and I had a hard time putting it down each night. The stories of the present interwoven with his past and training in the British army worked very very well well together. The narrative is clean compelling and draws you in. One heck of a good yarn.
Well, normally not a non-fiction reader, this book drew me in, and I had a hard time putting it down each night. The stories of the present interwoven with his past and training in the British army worked very very well well together. The narrative is clean compelling and draws you in. One heck of a good yarn.
September 19, 2026
Concise and to the point, weaving the on-the-ground details of the author's actions and observations with some chapters on his childhood and prior military service (mostly pre-SAS). This is a quick one or two day read. The incident is somewhat reminiscent of Once a Pilgrim, which would make a good companion read.
A little more content about the author's SAS experience would have been welcome, as well as some details about the legal obstacles that delayed the publication of the book, and the decision to proceed with publication. Even though One Man In is well written and gripping, it left me wanting to read more about the author. Or am I just sensing that a sequel is in the works?
A little more content about the author's SAS experience would have been welcome, as well as some details about the legal obstacles that delayed the publication of the book, and the decision to proceed with publication. Even though One Man In is well written and gripping, it left me wanting to read more about the author. Or am I just sensing that a sequel is in the works?
September 18, 2026
Great, fast easy read
I would recommend this for a easy read and to the point. No fluff hard hitting kind of read. Loved how it read.
I would recommend this for a easy read and to the point. No fluff hard hitting kind of read. Loved how it read.
September 18, 2026
The amazing story of an British SAS special forces operator who saved 700 lives on the hotel attack in Kenya.
Must read.
Must read.
September 17, 2026
“No one is coming, it’s up to us”
September 19, 2026
Exceptional
A true story that checks ALL the boxes. The incident timeline of the events in Nairobi are perfectly interwoven with his life story and how he used his life long training and experience to respond and be leader, the support and the saving grace needed for good to defeat evil.
A true story that checks ALL the boxes. The incident timeline of the events in Nairobi are perfectly interwoven with his life story and how he used his life long training and experience to respond and be leader, the support and the saving grace needed for good to defeat evil.
September 27, 2026
Christian Craighead's 2026 One Man In: The Explosive Firsthand Account of the Lone Special-Ops Commando Who Fought Off a Major Terrorist Attach in Kenya covers the author's almost-unbelievable role in the 2019 al-Shabaab attack on a Nairobi hotel, while also interweaving backstory on his difficult childhood and his previous work in the British Army as well.
The book's Prologue begins in medias res, with "Two hand grenades bounced down the stairs, coming toward me," then "noise [that] was deafening," the "who-knows-what inside" the "old Chinese grenades" filling the place with "black smoke" and "dust from all the damaged concrete, plasterwork, and fittings" that "turned the hallway toxic" (2026 Threshold hardcover, page xi). This is
"quickly followed by a long volley of automatic fire, with bullets pinging off the floor and embedding themselves in the walls. The AK-47 on automatic is a loud weapon at the best of times. In this setting, it was off the charts.
Fucking hell! was all I could think." (page xii)
With this, the reader--any reader who would buy this book, anyway--is completely hooked.
Now, we may recall that just half a dozen years earlier, back in 2013, terrorists from the same al-Shabaab group "attacked the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi" and "cold-bloodedly executed" "[a]t least sixty-seven people" (pages 9-10). Craighead, who by mid-January 2019 had "been in Kenya for a month as a British liaison officer" (page 3)--a trainer of Kenyan military forces, really--always "believed a similar attack on the city could happen again," so he kept a go-bag packed with "uniform, body armor, helmet, night vision goggles (NVGs), guns, hand grenades, stun grenades, a hunting knife, ammo, ear protection, and eye protection" (page 10). Back in the Westgate siege, one of his "new friend[s]" from "Nairobi's expat community" had slipped in and not only "rescued the family [of a friend who had called him] but helped many others to safety" as well (pages 9-10)...and now, in 2019, this fellow calls up one afternoon "[s]ound[ing] agitated," which "wasn't his style," and explains that "a complex attack [is] going on" in the hotel where he's working: "I'm not armed and I'm laying low in my office. You need to get down here right now with your boys" (page 21).
So Craighead "grab[s] [his] weapons valise and gear bag" (page 22) and hustles out, with "No orders, no support, one option--get there and make a difference" (page 27). "[T]he main road heading into town" is "completely rammed," which I presume either means "jammed" or is a typo, so he goes "onto the opposite side of the road and start[s] driving the wrong way into town" while "[f]lashing [his] lights and hammering the horn" (pages 27-28). After "weaving in and out of traffic" (page 29) through "some close shaves" (page 30), sometimes "hitting 80 mph in short bursts" (page 33), he finally bluffs his way sternly through a police checkpoint by claiming to be "on the orders of the president" (page 34). He "hear[s] automatic gunfire and explosions" and assumes that "the Kenyan Defense Forces must all be inside already, clearing through the complex," such that he perhaps can "assist them" (page 34).
And yet... Well, it doesn't happen that way, does it? At the gatehouse to the hotel complex are some "guards from nearby buildings" and "also some civilians with handguns" whom he terms "'Free Radicals'--individuals with an unknown level of weapons training that made them unpredictable and potentially dangerous"--but no "army here, or Special Forces," or even "police." "No one is here yet," according to "an older guard," and then they hear "[a]nother burst of automatic gunfire" that makes a woman's scream stop "so abruptly" that he know she has "just been murdered""
"'Right,' I said firmly. 'I'm going in. Are any of you guys coming with me?'
'No, boss,' came the sheepish, collective reply.'
No one wanted to risk their life, and there was no point in trying to persuade them." (page 41)
Yet rather than "feeling at a disadvantage in this deadly game of hide-and-seek," after "years of training and an unprecedented number of missions around the world," he instead "felt like a professional getting into the ring with amateurs"; "Bring it on was more or less what [he] was thinking" (page 43). He goes in alone.
Here, though, I suppose I shall cease. Suffice it to say that the author's efforts in this terrorist attack are astounding, and as he continues rescuing civilians hiding for their lives he also ends up being joined by unpredictable "Free Radicals" and, eventually, competent Kenyan military forces. And as we learn of this or that part of his self-imposed mission as he moves always onward, chapters here and there also take us back through childhood neglect and bullying in a very rough neighborhood, his joining the British military when he was still 16 (page 70) and working his way from Parachute Regiment into the even-more-elite Special Air Service, and deployment in Northern Ireland and then, in the invasion of 2003, Iraq. It is an engaging mixture that helps us understand the man, and what brought him to this peril he takes on without, in the beginning, any orders or even authorization.
Any any event, Christian Craighead's 2026 One Man In: The Explosive Firsthand Account of the Lone Special-Ops Commando Who Fought Off a Major Terrorist Attach in Kenya will be an exciting, inspiring, sometimes deadly grim, sometimes amusing 5-star read for anyone with an interest in modern military history.
The book's Prologue begins in medias res, with "Two hand grenades bounced down the stairs, coming toward me," then "noise [that] was deafening," the "who-knows-what inside" the "old Chinese grenades" filling the place with "black smoke" and "dust from all the damaged concrete, plasterwork, and fittings" that "turned the hallway toxic" (2026 Threshold hardcover, page xi). This is
"quickly followed by a long volley of automatic fire, with bullets pinging off the floor and embedding themselves in the walls. The AK-47 on automatic is a loud weapon at the best of times. In this setting, it was off the charts.
Fucking hell! was all I could think." (page xii)
With this, the reader--any reader who would buy this book, anyway--is completely hooked.
Now, we may recall that just half a dozen years earlier, back in 2013, terrorists from the same al-Shabaab group "attacked the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi" and "cold-bloodedly executed" "[a]t least sixty-seven people" (pages 9-10). Craighead, who by mid-January 2019 had "been in Kenya for a month as a British liaison officer" (page 3)--a trainer of Kenyan military forces, really--always "believed a similar attack on the city could happen again," so he kept a go-bag packed with "uniform, body armor, helmet, night vision goggles (NVGs), guns, hand grenades, stun grenades, a hunting knife, ammo, ear protection, and eye protection" (page 10). Back in the Westgate siege, one of his "new friend[s]" from "Nairobi's expat community" had slipped in and not only "rescued the family [of a friend who had called him] but helped many others to safety" as well (pages 9-10)...and now, in 2019, this fellow calls up one afternoon "[s]ound[ing] agitated," which "wasn't his style," and explains that "a complex attack [is] going on" in the hotel where he's working: "I'm not armed and I'm laying low in my office. You need to get down here right now with your boys" (page 21).
So Craighead "grab[s] [his] weapons valise and gear bag" (page 22) and hustles out, with "No orders, no support, one option--get there and make a difference" (page 27). "[T]he main road heading into town" is "completely rammed," which I presume either means "jammed" or is a typo, so he goes "onto the opposite side of the road and start[s] driving the wrong way into town" while "[f]lashing [his] lights and hammering the horn" (pages 27-28). After "weaving in and out of traffic" (page 29) through "some close shaves" (page 30), sometimes "hitting 80 mph in short bursts" (page 33), he finally bluffs his way sternly through a police checkpoint by claiming to be "on the orders of the president" (page 34). He "hear[s] automatic gunfire and explosions" and assumes that "the Kenyan Defense Forces must all be inside already, clearing through the complex," such that he perhaps can "assist them" (page 34).
And yet... Well, it doesn't happen that way, does it? At the gatehouse to the hotel complex are some "guards from nearby buildings" and "also some civilians with handguns" whom he terms "'Free Radicals'--individuals with an unknown level of weapons training that made them unpredictable and potentially dangerous"--but no "army here, or Special Forces," or even "police." "No one is here yet," according to "an older guard," and then they hear "[a]nother burst of automatic gunfire" that makes a woman's scream stop "so abruptly" that he know she has "just been murdered""
"'Right,' I said firmly. 'I'm going in. Are any of you guys coming with me?'
'No, boss,' came the sheepish, collective reply.'
No one wanted to risk their life, and there was no point in trying to persuade them." (page 41)
Yet rather than "feeling at a disadvantage in this deadly game of hide-and-seek," after "years of training and an unprecedented number of missions around the world," he instead "felt like a professional getting into the ring with amateurs"; "Bring it on was more or less what [he] was thinking" (page 43). He goes in alone.
Here, though, I suppose I shall cease. Suffice it to say that the author's efforts in this terrorist attack are astounding, and as he continues rescuing civilians hiding for their lives he also ends up being joined by unpredictable "Free Radicals" and, eventually, competent Kenyan military forces. And as we learn of this or that part of his self-imposed mission as he moves always onward, chapters here and there also take us back through childhood neglect and bullying in a very rough neighborhood, his joining the British military when he was still 16 (page 70) and working his way from Parachute Regiment into the even-more-elite Special Air Service, and deployment in Northern Ireland and then, in the invasion of 2003, Iraq. It is an engaging mixture that helps us understand the man, and what brought him to this peril he takes on without, in the beginning, any orders or even authorization.
Any any event, Christian Craighead's 2026 One Man In: The Explosive Firsthand Account of the Lone Special-Ops Commando Who Fought Off a Major Terrorist Attach in Kenya will be an exciting, inspiring, sometimes deadly grim, sometimes amusing 5-star read for anyone with an interest in modern military history.
September 30, 2026
I read this because the British government wants to arrest this guy. Evidently it is a "hate crime" to resist terrorism.
The book is the standard military battle book and what caught my attention was the unfortunate interactions he has with civilians, would be soldiers and the general fubar conditions of the situation.
He ran into the situation voluntarily to rescue people and regardless how they dress it up, that is why the government is against him. Democracy demands death from it's soldiers not victory and politicians despise strength.
The book is the standard military battle book and what caught my attention was the unfortunate interactions he has with civilians, would be soldiers and the general fubar conditions of the situation.
He ran into the situation voluntarily to rescue people and regardless how they dress it up, that is why the government is against him. Democracy demands death from it's soldiers not victory and politicians despise strength.
September 17, 2026
Fascinating read
Fascinating read, wish it could have been longer, maybe gone a little more into his military career. Now I’m waiting for the movie.
Fascinating read, wish it could have been longer, maybe gone a little more into his military career. Now I’m waiting for the movie.
September 16, 2026
A must read
There are still heros in the world. A riveting account. Why in the world would the tyrants in the UK govt want to censor it
There are still heros in the world. A riveting account. Why in the world would the tyrants in the UK govt want to censor it
September 22, 2026
Insanely good! This made me so thankful for incredible people who fight evil no matter the cost.
October 6, 2026
An amazing account, read by the author and subject, of one man acting on his own initiative to save innocent civilians and defeat evil, while at the same time bringing great credit to his own country (UK), British Forces, the Special Air Service, and supporting the Kenyan nation.
A complex attack involving a suicide bomber and multiple armed terrorists (with rifles, substantial explosives, and a clear plan, although that plain remains undocumented in open sources) took over a large multi-building complex with a hotel and offices. The response was a bit chaotic, and Christian, who was an SAS member doing training of Kenyan security forces, found out about the event and chose to grab his equipment and rush to the scene, spending nearly 22 hours primarily helping trapped civilians leave, but also directly engaging the terrorists with Kenyan security forces and ultimately being victorious.
One interesting detail I didn't realize until this book -- Christian was aware of the earlier 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Kenya, and it informed his own preparations while in Kenya -- keeping his equipment and weapons with him at all times -- because he thought the situation would likely reoccur and he wanted to be ready to act. He was very ready to act, and was able to help the others at the scene (a mix of highly trained Recce officers from the Kenyan security forces, various police units of varying level of preparation, civilians and other security contractors, journalists, and victims at the site) to respond well.
The book also included information about his difficult childhood on a council estate in the North of England, early days in the UK Military (from the Paras to Pathfinders to eventually SAS), and is generally full of information. Obviously I would have loved more information about his time with SAS (beyond a single mission in early days of the Iraq War), but some of that is classified or operationally sensitive, and ultimately the book is about the author himself and his role in one incident in Kenya.
It is interesting that he had become somewhat disillusioned with the UK Military and government even before this, and chose to relocate to the US (Texas, I believe) after this incident. He has also written a children's book about his experiences as a child from a rough background, and it's probably quite good as well.
A complex attack involving a suicide bomber and multiple armed terrorists (with rifles, substantial explosives, and a clear plan, although that plain remains undocumented in open sources) took over a large multi-building complex with a hotel and offices. The response was a bit chaotic, and Christian, who was an SAS member doing training of Kenyan security forces, found out about the event and chose to grab his equipment and rush to the scene, spending nearly 22 hours primarily helping trapped civilians leave, but also directly engaging the terrorists with Kenyan security forces and ultimately being victorious.
One interesting detail I didn't realize until this book -- Christian was aware of the earlier 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Kenya, and it informed his own preparations while in Kenya -- keeping his equipment and weapons with him at all times -- because he thought the situation would likely reoccur and he wanted to be ready to act. He was very ready to act, and was able to help the others at the scene (a mix of highly trained Recce officers from the Kenyan security forces, various police units of varying level of preparation, civilians and other security contractors, journalists, and victims at the site) to respond well.
The book also included information about his difficult childhood on a council estate in the North of England, early days in the UK Military (from the Paras to Pathfinders to eventually SAS), and is generally full of information. Obviously I would have loved more information about his time with SAS (beyond a single mission in early days of the Iraq War), but some of that is classified or operationally sensitive, and ultimately the book is about the author himself and his role in one incident in Kenya.
It is interesting that he had become somewhat disillusioned with the UK Military and government even before this, and chose to relocate to the US (Texas, I believe) after this incident. He has also written a children's book about his experiences as a child from a rough background, and it's probably quite good as well.
October 14, 2022
Like much of what comes from this man, this is self-aggrandising partial fiction. He is prejudiced to the bone so the prospect of him crediting anyone else, particularly anyone Kenyan for helping during this is near zero.
If it gets released, it will bomb. My hope for Craighead is that it remains blocked and he can escape with his dignity intact without being outed as a fantasist and a liar.
If it gets released, it will bomb. My hope for Craighead is that it remains blocked and he can escape with his dignity intact without being outed as a fantasist and a liar.
September 22, 2026
An Exceptional Man and Warrior
Some men are called by God to be warriors. Chris is one such man who always wanted to be a soldier and God prepared him for this great task. Thank God for our warriors.
Some men are called by God to be warriors. Chris is one such man who always wanted to be a soldier and God prepared him for this great task. Thank God for our warriors.
September 21, 2026
Wild accounts of a dangerous situation. He did something most people wouldn’t: he went in while others were running away.
“Let’s go. Let’s go and fucking do this.”
“Let’s go. Let’s go and fucking do this.”
September 22, 2026
Crazy telling of the attacks in Kenya. The author made you feel like you were there in the DusitD2 with him. Fast paced action.
September 24, 2026
I loved this powerful true story of Chris Craighead’s extraordinary bravery and the many lives he saved.
October 5, 2026
Wild story. Describes what preparation and dedication looks like when it’s time to be tested. Incredible story.
September 25, 2026
True Hero
Amazing story. I flew through the book. It was intense, emotional and inspiring. If only I were an 18 year old lad again.
Amazing story. I flew through the book. It was intense, emotional and inspiring. If only I were an 18 year old lad again.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews