This is one of Quinnell's earlier works featuring Creasy. Creasy is a middle-aged retired mercenary and the book opens with the terrorist sabotage of Pan Am 103 which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988 killing everyone on board. Creasy's wife Nadia and daughter Julia were on that flight and he swears revenge on the people who instigated it. With some financial support from a US senator, who also lost his wife, Creasy makes his plans which include adopting a 17 year old boy from an orphanage and grooming him to be as good a killing machine as he is himself. As with all Quinnell's novels this one is well plotted and executed, as well as being fast paced and easy to read.