Luke Carlton books in order: the complete series

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Crisis by Frank Gardner

1. Crisis (2016)

Introducing Luke Carlton – ex-Special Boat Service commando, and now under contract to MI6 for some of its most dangerous missions.

Sent into the steaming Colombian jungle to investigate the murder of a British intelligence officer, Luke finds himself caught up in the coils of a plot that has terrifying international dimensions.

Hunted down, captured, tortured and on the run from one of South America’s most powerful and ruthless drugs cartels and its psychotic leader thirsting for revenge, Luke is in a life-or-death race against time to prevent a disaster on a truly terrifying scale: London is the target, the weapon is diabolical and the means of delivery is ingenious.

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Ultimatum by Frank Gardner

2. Ultimatum (2018)

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…

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Outbreak by Frank Gardner

3. Outbreak (2021)

Deep within the Arctic Circle, three scientists from the UK’s Arctic Research Station trudge through a blizzard in search of shelter. They see a cabin ahead. It appears abandoned. No lights. No snowmobile outside. But as they push open the door, the smell hits them. Rank and foetid: there’s something bad inside.

Then movement. A man lies slumped, his face disfigured by livid pustules. Blood runs from his nostrils; his chest glistens blackly. The team’s medic, Dr Sheila Mackenzie, pushes forward to examine him when the convulsions start. Blood, bile and mucus spray into the air. The doctor knows it’s too late – she’s been contaminated.

Within hours, a full-scale operation to contain this contagion is underway. Samples are rushed to the laboratories at Porton Down on high alert. What they discover changes everything. Supported by phone and data intercepts, British Intelligence reaches a terrifying conclusion: that Russia has been developing a new generation of bio-weapons.

Dispatched to investigate, MI6’s Luke Carlton finds himself on a serpentine trail of lies and deception. From a mysterious factory in Lithuania, via arrest and imprisonment, and ultimately back to Britain, he discovers that they’ve been looking in the wrong place all along…

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Invasion by Frank Gardner

4. Invasion (May 2024)

2024, and China is massing troops on its coast across the Strait from Taiwan. This time it looks like they’re serious about invasion – an act that would result in war between the People’s Republic and the US and its allies, including the UK.

But Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service has an agent in play: someone close to the top of the Chinese Communist Party and who’s ready to pass on vital secrets that could defuse the escalating situation. But as the handover takes place in a Hong Kong back street cafe, the agent’s MI6 handler is snatched before she can transmit the data back to London and disappears. There are few clues as to who might be responsible. Is it China’s infamous state security agency, the MSS? Or has another, less predictable player entered the game?

MI6 field operative Luke Carlton is despatched to track down the missing agent. Accompanying him is his Mandarin-speaking colleague, the highly capable Jenny Li. But as they follow a succession of tip-offs that take them from shady Macau casinos to tawdry night clubs, Luke begins to sense that something’s not right – that they are being deliberately strung along.

As the clock ticks, global tensions heighten and the two SIS operatives have traced their target to Taiwan – a country frantically preparing for imminent invasion. And there, in a remote mountain temple hideaway, Luke and Jenny stumble across what’s really going on.

But China’s People’s Liberation Army has already begun to flex its hi-tech muscles, in Taiwan and closer to home, and suddenly the world is holding its breath