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 . . .

Far 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. The FSB intelligence officer 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 on him. 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 badly 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.

Tensions rise to boiling point . . . Gardner cuts to the molten core of a modern flashpoint in an electric thriller. * THE SUN (on Invasion)  *
Everything is impressive in this masterly account . . . exhilarating (if alarming) topicality. * SUNDAY TIMES (on Invasion) *
A genuinely unnerving and fast-paced race-against-time thriller . . . its potent combination of Tom Clancy-style hi-tech military and naval manoeuvring and a John Le Carre-like espionage thriller rings all too true . . . highly recommended. * IRISH INDEPENDENT (on Invasion) *
Fast, taut, tense, accurate. A terrific read. -- FREDERICK FORSYTH (on Crisis)
Gardner skilfully mixes knowledge garnered as the BBC’s security correspondent with breathless action. * THE TIMES (on Ultimatum) *

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.