This is the debut novel by Alex Shaw and is advertised as 'A Special Forces Thriller'. I read all books published on the SAS (Chris Ryan, Andy McNab etc) so I thought I'd give Hetman a go. Hetman starts with a scene set in 1996, a bank robbery gone wrong (conducted by a group of former Soviet SF soldiers) then jumps to the present day UK and Ukraine. The main character is former SAS Trooper Aidan Snow who was injured in the bank raid and now working as a teacher years later, he was a member of an SAS team who was nearby training a Polish CT team when the Polish bank was attacked. Sounds slightly strange but it works it really works. Aidan Snow's new life as an expatriate teacher in Kyiv is blown apart when someone from the past reappears and attempts to kill him. Framed for two assassinations and with the SBU (Ukrainian name for the KGB) after him Snow must once again become the SAS trooper he once was to survive.

Now for a more detailed review see my er review but I can not urge you any more to give this book a try. It is a welcomed change to the usual Chris Ryan/Andy McNab and I believe more original! Apparently Alex Shaw is working on the sequel due out before Christmas, I only hope that it will find it's way into my stocking.