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Nick Stone #7
Deep Black
Nick Stone’s future looks bleak. The only person he’s ever loved is dead. The only people who might save him have turned their backs.
Until a chance encounter reunited him with a man whose life he saved 10 years ago.
What seems a simple quest in Baghdad takes Stone into the heart of a chilling conspiracy, from violent Bosnia, through lightening-paced action in Iraq. But too late, he realizes that he is being used as bait to lure into the open a man he believes can offer some salvation. A man whom the darker forces of the West will stop at nothing to destroy...
Reviews:
“Andy McNab knows where his strengths lie, and it's not just in his biceps... Only people who have not read this book could suggest that he is not a fine writer. It is a heart-thumping read” - Daily Express (UK)
“McNab is the best suspense thriller writer to put pen to paper since Alistair MacLean” - Stephen Coonts
“McNab is a terrific novelist. When it comes to thrills, he’s Forsyth class” - Mail on Sunday (UK)
“McNab’s great asset is that the heart of his fiction is not fiction: other thriller writers do their research, but he has actually been there” - The Sunday Times (UK) (less)
Until a chance encounter reunited him with a man whose life he saved 10 years ago.
What seems a simple quest in Baghdad takes Stone into the heart of a chilling conspiracy, from violent Bosnia, through lightening-paced action in Iraq. But too late, he realizes that he is being used as bait to lure into the open a man he believes can offer some salvation. A man whom the darker forces of the West will stop at nothing to destroy...
Reviews:
“Andy McNab knows where his strengths lie, and it's not just in his biceps... Only people who have not read this book could suggest that he is not a fine writer. It is a heart-thumping read” - Daily Express (UK)
“McNab is the best suspense thriller writer to put pen to paper since Alistair MacLean” - Stephen Coonts
“McNab is a terrific novelist. When it comes to thrills, he’s Forsyth class” - Mail on Sunday (UK)
“McNab’s great asset is that the heart of his fiction is not fiction: other thriller writers do their research, but he has actually been there” - The Sunday Times (UK) (less)
512 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
187 people are currently reading
924 people want to read
About the author
Andy McNab
205 books1,164 followersAndy McNab joined the infantry in 1976 as a boy soldier. In 1984 he was badged as a member of 22 SAS Regiment. He served in B Squadron 22 SAS for ten years and worked on both covert and overt special operations worldwide, including anti-terrorist and anti-drug operations in the Middle and Far East, South and Central America and Northern Ireland.
Trained as a specialist in counter terrorism, prime target elimination, demolitions, weapons and tactics, covert surveillance and information gathering in hostile environments, and VIP protection, McNab worked on cooperative operations with police forces, prison services, anti-drug forces and western backed guerrilla movements as well as on conventional special operations. In Northern Ireland he spent two years working as an undercover operator with 14th Intelligence Group, going on to become an instructor.
McNab also worked as an instructor on the SAS selection and training team and instructed foreign special forces in counter terrorism, hostage rescue and survival training.
Andy McNab has written about his experiences in the SAS in two bestselling books, Bravo Two Zero (1993) and Immediate Action (1995). Bravo Two Zero is the highest selling war book of all time and has sold over 1.7 million copies in the UK. To date it has been published in 17 countries and translated into 16 languages. The CD spoken word version of Bravo Two Zero, narrated by McNab, sold over 60,000 copies and earned a silver disc. The BBC's film of Bravo Two Zero, starring Sean Bean, was shown on primetime BBC 1 television in 1999 and released on DVD in 2000.
Immediate Action, McNab's autobiography, spent 18 weeks at the top of the bestseller lists following the lifting on an ex-parte injunction granted to the Ministry of Defence in September 1995. To date, Immediate Action has now sold over 1.4 million copies in the UK.
McNab is the author of seven fast action thrillers, highly acclaimed for their authenticity and all Sunday Times bestsellers. Published in 1997, Remote Control was hailed as the most authentic thriller ever written and has sold over half a million copies in the UK. McNab's subsequent thrillers, Crisis Four, Firewall, Last Light , Liberation Day , Dark Winter , Deep Black and Aggressor have all gone on to sell equally well. The central character in all the books is Nick Stone, a tough ex-SAS operative working as a 'K' on deniable operations for British Intelligence.
McNab's fiction draws extensively on his experiences and knowledge of Special Forces soldiering. He has been officially registered by Neilsen Bookscan as the bestselling British thriller writer of the last year.
Trained as a specialist in counter terrorism, prime target elimination, demolitions, weapons and tactics, covert surveillance and information gathering in hostile environments, and VIP protection, McNab worked on cooperative operations with police forces, prison services, anti-drug forces and western backed guerrilla movements as well as on conventional special operations. In Northern Ireland he spent two years working as an undercover operator with 14th Intelligence Group, going on to become an instructor.
McNab also worked as an instructor on the SAS selection and training team and instructed foreign special forces in counter terrorism, hostage rescue and survival training.
Andy McNab has written about his experiences in the SAS in two bestselling books, Bravo Two Zero (1993) and Immediate Action (1995). Bravo Two Zero is the highest selling war book of all time and has sold over 1.7 million copies in the UK. To date it has been published in 17 countries and translated into 16 languages. The CD spoken word version of Bravo Two Zero, narrated by McNab, sold over 60,000 copies and earned a silver disc. The BBC's film of Bravo Two Zero, starring Sean Bean, was shown on primetime BBC 1 television in 1999 and released on DVD in 2000.
Immediate Action, McNab's autobiography, spent 18 weeks at the top of the bestseller lists following the lifting on an ex-parte injunction granted to the Ministry of Defence in September 1995. To date, Immediate Action has now sold over 1.4 million copies in the UK.
McNab is the author of seven fast action thrillers, highly acclaimed for their authenticity and all Sunday Times bestsellers. Published in 1997, Remote Control was hailed as the most authentic thriller ever written and has sold over half a million copies in the UK. McNab's subsequent thrillers, Crisis Four, Firewall, Last Light , Liberation Day , Dark Winter , Deep Black and Aggressor have all gone on to sell equally well. The central character in all the books is Nick Stone, a tough ex-SAS operative working as a 'K' on deniable operations for British Intelligence.
McNab's fiction draws extensively on his experiences and knowledge of Special Forces soldiering. He has been officially registered by Neilsen Bookscan as the bestselling British thriller writer of the last year.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
September 3, 2023
A very, very, very poor one and a big loss of cellulose and time. There is ABSOLUTELY NO ACTION until the last third of the book, as the so-called hero (I hate the novels in which almost everybody dies, excepting, guess who, the chosen one...) get us bored with his ridiculous reflections about junk food, bad odors and his lost virginity.
The last part it's more lively, but lacks any detectable trace of class. Not to mention the stupid contempt against Serbians as a nation, and that idiot incredible imagine of a "football game".
So, Deep Sheet gains a well-deserved place in TopTen Worst pieces of lost paper...
The last part it's more lively, but lacks any detectable trace of class. Not to mention the stupid contempt against Serbians as a nation, and that idiot incredible imagine of a "football game".
So, Deep Sheet gains a well-deserved place in TopTen Worst pieces of lost paper...
October 16, 2012
Or Nick Stone: The Dishwater Edition. This Andy McNab book follows the same downward spiral as the last few books in the series, an overly-padded and way too slow-paced would-be thriller that offers anything but thrills. The thriller aspects of the story make up around a third of the pages and the rest is just padding involving the main characters sitting around or wandering around aimlessly.
McNab misses the fact that thrillers need to be pacy and suspenseful even when there isn't shooting going on. But descriptions of characters drinking cans of Coke which go on for page after page are hardly that. There's also a real paucity of vocabulary; the same language and lines are used over and over. It feels like this book was rushed out on a production line with no real care taken over it.
The storyline is a wild goose chase about the hunt for a saviour of women in the aftermath of the Serbian war. The action shifts to Iraq to include some descriptions of a country at war (the year is 2003). This time around, Stone isn't working for the government so his mission seems aimless and a little bit pointless; the action sees him being acted upon rather than active himself.
By this stage, he's also a really miserable character who you don't enjoy reading about; I was hoping for a bullet to put him out of his misery. The story has a whole has a downbeat, bleak tone that saps the entertainment value and makes this a lifeless read.
McNab misses the fact that thrillers need to be pacy and suspenseful even when there isn't shooting going on. But descriptions of characters drinking cans of Coke which go on for page after page are hardly that. There's also a real paucity of vocabulary; the same language and lines are used over and over. It feels like this book was rushed out on a production line with no real care taken over it.
The storyline is a wild goose chase about the hunt for a saviour of women in the aftermath of the Serbian war. The action shifts to Iraq to include some descriptions of a country at war (the year is 2003). This time around, Stone isn't working for the government so his mission seems aimless and a little bit pointless; the action sees him being acted upon rather than active himself.
By this stage, he's also a really miserable character who you don't enjoy reading about; I was hoping for a bullet to put him out of his misery. The story has a whole has a downbeat, bleak tone that saps the entertainment value and makes this a lifeless read.
June 3, 2012
I know that the Nick Stone series isn't all about action-packed adventure. But this is just bad. The most boring book of the series to this point.
September 1, 2018
This was an enjoyable read, but the ending needed more clarification.
December 26, 2020
Well I enjoyed this Nick Stone, the second I have read. I was given 3 McNab’s to read this month. That punted my reading of Proust’s Swann’s Way into 2021.
Cracker of a story and a good action read. I will get to my other 2 Nick Stone’s shortly.
Cracker of a story and a good action read. I will get to my other 2 Nick Stone’s shortly.
February 27, 2023
An exciting read that sees Nick stone battling his demon's while tracking down a holy man everyone else is trying to kill.
Read
April 21, 2020Started well then began to loose it's way and pace. Some details were too much and unnecessary.
April 21, 2019
Andy McNab's Nick Stone-cycle has become for me something of a default choice when I feel like reading something with 'special-ops' theme and a lot of action. 'Deep Black' scratched that itch without any problems. In fact I enjoyed it more than I expected. Events that took place in previous volume have not only freed the story arch from an element that quite frankly annoyed me for quite some time (yes, I am talking about Kelly) but also sent the protagonist of the story onto much darker path - a double win for this reader!
I'm already looking forward to the next volume in this series, which continues to grow on me.
I'm already looking forward to the next volume in this series, which continues to grow on me.
May 30, 2023
One of best plots in the series so far. I was hoping, partly based on the title, that the ending would be Nick waking up from a coma, nulling the previous instalment’s tragic ending, but it wasn’t to be. The Predator fire control scene was super cool though.
June 19, 2012
Why do you always get the feeling Nick Stone is the biggest loser in the world? I wouldn't mind him having a good time at some time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 20, 2024
My previous book that I read was amazing so my plan was to read something that would be pretty rubbish so as not to ruin any other great books I have. And this didn’t disappoint in that respect. It was awful. The way I view this book is if you imagine playing a shoot em up video game and you go from level to level with no link to why you are in the next level and what the point of it is. You are just there to shoot things and wander around looking at the scenery. Now if you turn that video game into a book you will have this book and I would imagine most of his other books that I definitely won’t be reading.
The main character goes from Washington to Baghdad to Bosnia and there is minimal link as to why it happens. It just happens. One chapter there’s been an attack while in a car in Iraq and the next chapter we’re in a hotel in Bosnia.
The writing is like it has been written by a spotty 15 year old lad. The times the phrase “fuck it”, “big-time”, “legged it”, “gobbing off” were used is laughable.
It is a very easy read and I did finish it as I hate failing to finish a book I’ve started however bad it is.
This one was truly bad though. And the plot is just rubbish. It’s flakey and lazy, with no real identity to the reason for the mission (even though it wasn’t really a mission until page 385 out of 394). And then it ends abruptly. Job done and mission over. And I found myself turning the next page thinking “oh, that’s it then. Okay.” I genuinely and honestly closed the book and threw it in the floor after the last page. It’s not even worthy of going to the charity shop.
The main character goes from Washington to Baghdad to Bosnia and there is minimal link as to why it happens. It just happens. One chapter there’s been an attack while in a car in Iraq and the next chapter we’re in a hotel in Bosnia.
The writing is like it has been written by a spotty 15 year old lad. The times the phrase “fuck it”, “big-time”, “legged it”, “gobbing off” were used is laughable.
It is a very easy read and I did finish it as I hate failing to finish a book I’ve started however bad it is.
This one was truly bad though. And the plot is just rubbish. It’s flakey and lazy, with no real identity to the reason for the mission (even though it wasn’t really a mission until page 385 out of 394). And then it ends abruptly. Job done and mission over. And I found myself turning the next page thinking “oh, that’s it then. Okay.” I genuinely and honestly closed the book and threw it in the floor after the last page. It’s not even worthy of going to the charity shop.
January 26, 2020
Deep Black. Andy McNab
Sometimes the loss of the only family you have can be devastating. The will do go on diminishes. Coupled with the brutal murder of someone who you tried to help if only for a few minutes dies brutally in front of you . Her eyes pleading for you for help. Nick Stone is unable too. He has his mission to complete. Then he is betrayed . Returning to the states, Washington Dc he runs into an old acquaintance from Bosnia. A photographer whose life he saved. He agrees to accompany him back to the hellfire he just left. He wants to complete his mission to kill the Serb leader he was originally sent there to eliminate. Unfortunately for Nick he has been betrayed again. Set up . Lied too. This is an extremely fast paced riveting read.Enjoyed immensely!
Sometimes the loss of the only family you have can be devastating. The will do go on diminishes. Coupled with the brutal murder of someone who you tried to help if only for a few minutes dies brutally in front of you . Her eyes pleading for you for help. Nick Stone is unable too. He has his mission to complete. Then he is betrayed . Returning to the states, Washington Dc he runs into an old acquaintance from Bosnia. A photographer whose life he saved. He agrees to accompany him back to the hellfire he just left. He wants to complete his mission to kill the Serb leader he was originally sent there to eliminate. Unfortunately for Nick he has been betrayed again. Set up . Lied too. This is an extremely fast paced riveting read.Enjoyed immensely!
December 7, 2024
Although there wasn't really any action, I enjoyed the first third of this book. I like hearing about Nick in his everyday life. It was okay when he first went to Baghdad too, but maybe I want paying enough attention as I lost track of why things were happening for a while. Not much action until the last quarter of the book.
Nick Stone books are generally quick a dark read, lots go wrong, people die, Nick often gets messed up. This book isn't all that different.
If taken a break from Nick sure to this bleakness, read #6 and this one, but I think I might take a break again... These are just a bit too political for me perhaps.
Nick Stone books are generally quick a dark read, lots go wrong, people die, Nick often gets messed up. This book isn't all that different.
If taken a break from Nick sure to this bleakness, read #6 and this one, but I think I might take a break again... These are just a bit too political for me perhaps.
April 23, 2019
Stretching what is essentially an 80-page story into a 500-page book is quite a skill. And to ensure the reader stays engaged throughout is simply outstanding. McNab keeps you invested with all the details about the places, the people and all the gunfights. But you can see through all of it for the ruse that it is. The chap simply doesn't have enough content to make it a genuinely good piece of fiction writing. When it all ends, you are just not sure why it all began in the first place. Another piece of contractually obligated publishing, one assumes. Not a bad one though.
March 31, 2021
After a mission to kill a known terrorist goes wrong Nick in left in the cold. Then a photographer asks Nick to go to Iraq with him , Nick's first thought is to say no. After a frantic call from the photographers wife, Nick accompanies him only to find that someone else is pulling the strings.
I was slightly confused as to the purpose of the mission and the ending didn't explain it.
Exciting action but a little confusing.
I was slightly confused as to the purpose of the mission and the ending didn't explain it.
Exciting action but a little confusing.
June 13, 2020
Nick Stone is after an elusive islamic cleric working with a photographer he knew in Bosnia their search takes them from Iraq to Bosnia but all is not as it seems Hot Black Inc are in valved George doesn't intend losing Nick. Human trafficking and ethnic cleansing all are at the heart of this story.
August 8, 2025
A dramatic prelude then a slow opening, but Deep Black really picked up the pace in it's last third, and ended with a bang. You get the feeling Andy McNab is reliving parts of his operational work and remembering his tradecraft when bringing the hard-nosed Nick Stone character to life. It all feels very authentic.
December 31, 2017
Not one of the better stories in the series. I'm returning to Andy McNab after, what, 2 years. It's gritty, realistic, but slow. But that doesn't mean McNab is off my list. There are true-to-life sequences and description that could only come from one who has experienced it first hand.
April 4, 2022
I don't usually read war fiction because I work with people in war zones most of the time, but this was a gift from a friend so I started reading it. Engrossing, technical, a little too long but a deep insight into how war changes people and the causes they are fighting for.
December 4, 2022
Exciting Read
Interesting with many twists and turns, as well as excitement throughout.
Reading for me is an opportunity to switch off from all the elements of everyday life and enjoy some personal time and these books are some of the best I've read for exactly that.
Thank you
Interesting with many twists and turns, as well as excitement throughout.
Reading for me is an opportunity to switch off from all the elements of everyday life and enjoy some personal time and these books are some of the best I've read for exactly that.
Thank you
September 24, 2017
On to book #8 of Nick Stone ;-)
July 18, 2018
Boring...
July 13, 2019
After 278 Pages, the story had yet to be engaging. Sorry, bur this was a huge disappointment
January 20, 2020
Decent Nick Stone book but padded out in parts and the ending almost seemed rushed and not wrapped up. On to the next one in the series now
May 5, 2020
493 pages
February 4, 2021
This story goes to show there is no real good side in wars. Nothing can go right in Nick Stone’s life, can it?
August 1, 2021
Not my favorite. Too long, and slow in parts. I enjoy this series best when I like the location.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews