Perhaps the title given to the film version of this book, Echelon, reflects better the yarn it tells.

But the story of the author is even more interesting and instructive.

Steven Billy Mitchell, usually known by the pseudonym and pen-name of Andy McNab was born in Southwark, London in 1959.

As a boy he did not do well in school and ended up attending nine schools in seven years.

After dropping out of school he worked at various odd jobs, usually for friends and relatives. But he got involved in petty criminality and in 1976 was arrested for burglary.

Partly inspired by his brother's time in the army he wanted to join the British Army but failed the entry test for training as a pilot. He eventually enlisted with the Royal Green Jackets at 16 after being released from juvenile detention.

When he joined the army he was found to have a reading age of an eleven-year-old. He read his first book just before he had his seventeenth birthday, a book meant for primary school students.

After basic training he was posted to Gibraltar and then to Northern Ireland at the time of the Troubles. He claims to have killed for the first time during a firefight with the Provos who were preparing an ambush. 

In 1982, after six years of services with the Royal Green Jackets he applied to join the Special Air Service regiment where he remained for the rest of his career in the army.

He worked on both covert and overt operations, including counter terrorism and drug operations in the Middle East and Far East, South and Central America and Northern Ireland.

During the first Gulf War he commanded the legendary Bravo Two Zero and was awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Military Medal. When he finally left the SAS in February 1993,  he was the British Army's most highly decorated serving soldier.

He has written about his experiences in the SAS in three best selling books, though there are contrasting claims that the books are fraud.

He is more famous for his action thrillers, written with the help of a ghostwriter. 

His Nick Stone Missions series (20 books), of which the book being reviewed today forms part and the Boy Soldier series (4 books).draw on his experiences with the SAS. 

He also penned Battlefield 3: The Russian, which follows the story of a Spetsnaz GRU commando, Dmitri 'Dima' Mayakovsky and his involvement against an Iranian 

paramilitary insurgent group.

In today's book, tough, resourceful and ruthless ex-SAS trooper Nick Stone is now working for British Intelligence on deniable operations and in desperate need of cash especially for Kelly, a victim from the past.

So when he is offered a lucrative freelance job, he thinks his problems are over. All he needs to do is kidnap a Russian Mafia overlord.

But he is thrust into the grim underworld of Estonia, still suffering from the deprivations of Soviet Union rule, with unknown aggressors stalking the Arctic landscape.

Russia has launched a cyber-espionage attack into the West's most sensitive military secret, Echelon.

But the Mafia are waiting in the wings with their own chillingly brutal solution.

I found the book riveting in parts - his description of a London peopled with frauds, and Estonia just over the Soviet past. You also get a practical lesson on survival in extreme weather conditions. And making do with simple things when your defence runs out of the proper weapons.