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Chris Ryan was born near Newcastle in 1961. He joined the SAS in 1984. During his ten years he was involved in overt and covert operations and was also Sniper team commander of the anti-terrorist team. During the Gulf War, Chris was the only member of an eight-man team to escape from Iraq, of which three colleagues were killed and four captured. It was the longest escape and evasion in the history of the SAS. For this he was awarded the Military Medal. For his last two years he was selecting and training potential recruits for the SAS.
Chris Ryan was once most famous for his membership of the SAS, and the bestselling The One That Got Away established him as a writer who could always be counted on for gritty verisimilitude and no-nonsense action. But Ryan quickly demonstrated that he was no one-trick pony: fictional thrillers such as The Hit List and The Watchman parlayed all the insider expertise of his first book into swiftly moving narratives that have enjoyed great success. Here he follows senior NCO Mark Black, a hero of the Falklands war coming to terms with a conflict that involves his past. During the Falklands, Blac captured a young woman who was an Argentinean spy. And as a new military junta makes bellicose noises about re-invading the Falklands, Black is forced to confront the girl of his past once again - and possibly even trust his life to her. While all the usual pulse-raising suspense is on offer, Ryan has cannily build a sharply observed element of characterization into the novel, demonstrating that he's interested in more than simply dashing off a straightforward thriller. Land of Fire may not always be as plausible as his earlier work, but it represents a new direction for Ryan, and while his regular fans will be more than pleased, he should acquire many new readers with the extra sophistication on offer here. (Kirkus UK)
