‘It grips like a python from the first page, squeezing the breath out of the reader’ DAILY MAIL

‘Outstanding’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘Breathless action’ THE TIMES

Hidden from prying Western satellites, Iranian scientists are at work on a banned device . . .

They are acting on the orders of a renegade cell within Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, whose objective is to transform their country into a nuclear-armed nation, and so seal its domination of the Middle East.

Britain’s intelligence agencies know something is up. Someone on the inside is ready to hand over information - but the rendezvous with SIS officer Luke Carlton goes bloodily wrong . . .

Then MI6 sees an opportunity to recruit an individual with unique access to the IRGC hardliners. Luke is chosen to reel them in. Going into Iran undercover is dangerous enough, but then there’s a killing and a kidnapping and the British government is presented with a shocking ultimatum.

With time running out, it seems only Luke can stop a cataclysmic new war in the Gulf . . .
________

Readers love Ultimatum:

***** ‘An action-packed thriller . . . very authentic’
***** ‘A real page turner . . . thrilling adventure’
***** ‘Gripping page turner that keeps you glued to the story’

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. Although paralysed in the legs, he still travels extensively, reporting from Ukraine to Colombia to Saudi Arabia. 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 Sunday Times No.1 bestseller. The second and third Luke Carlton thrillers, Ultimatum and Outbreak, were also bestsellers, as was the fourth, the Taiwan-set Invasion. Frank Gardner lives in London.