Someone is killing Third Echelon's Splinter Cells, and Sam Fisher is sent to find out how their killers knew who they were. The trail runs from Macau and Iraq to the Shop, an arms-dealing ring that sells to anyone with money, and to the Shadows, an Iranian group whose leader, Nasir Tarighian, has his own plans for Baghdad.
What this adds if you've played the games
Raymond Benson, who wrote the official James Bond novels for several years, tells Sam's chapters in the first person, and that voice is the best reason to read this. You get the dry humor of the games' radio chatter, Lambert running things from Fort Meade, and a fuller look at how Third Echelon handles its field agents. Otherwise it's a straightforward airport thriller. It was published under the house name David Michaels, so that's the name on the cover.
Where it fits
- Read afterTom Clancy's Splinter Cell
The first novel is set a year or so after the first game, with the same Third Echelon. It's a separate story that gives nothing away, but it reads best once you know Sam.
- Comes beforeTom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda
Benson's second book continues the first novel's story a year later and resolves threads it leaves open, so read them in order.
Editions
Penguin paperback
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