Frank Gardner Books In Order

Publication Order of Luke Carlton Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Author Frank Gardner was born in Hampstead, London on July 31, 1961, his parents (who are named Evelyn Rolleson and Robert Gardner) were both diplomats. When he was just six years old he moved from the United Kingdom to the Hague in the Netherlands; the excitement from moving to a foreign country left a strong impression on him that would stick with him for a long time.

While only sixteen, he and his mother met Sir Wilfred Thesiger on a bus ride. His mother had already known the man. They were invited to his home, in Chelsea, and though Gardner was reluctant at first, he later fell in love with Arabia.

He spent time backpacking in Greece, during his gap year, and found an ad for a ticket that would take him to Manila, located in the Philippines. Once he got there, he spent time with the tribal members.

Gardner was encouraged by his teachers into taking up the biathlon, which enabled him to get to see Austria and train with the British Army biathlon team. He graduated from the University of Exeter in the year 1984 with a Bachelor of Arts in the subjects of Arabic and Islamic Studies.

He wrote a bestselling memoir called “Blood and Sand” that described his experiences while in the Middle East, and wrote another book that documents his travels to unusual places around the globe. Gardner has also written some books about a character named Luke Carlton, which are from the thriller genre.

Careers that Gardner has had include: journalism, Territorial Army officer, and a correspondent. He joined BBC World to be a producer and a reporter for them, and became BBC’s first Gulf correspondent, working full time at this post, in the year 1998, and set up office in Dubai. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, he covered stories that covered the War on Terror exclusively, which he started doing in 2002. He was appointed an Order of the British Empire in the year 2005 for his services to the field of journalism.

On June 6, in the year 2004, he was shot six times by al-Qaeda sympathizers, and his cameraman (who was Irish and was named Simon Cumbers) was killed. Most of the bullets that hit him in his torso missed anything vital, except one, which hit him in the spinal nerves. He now uses a wheelchair due to being partially paralyzed in his lower extremities. Later on, Adel al-Dhubaiti (the gunman that shot them) was caught and later killed by Saudi authorities in early 2016.

It took fourteen operations and a seven month stay in the hospital and a few months of physical therapy before he could return to his job reporting for the BBC in the middle of 2005. He had to use either a frame or a wheelchair. After, he would still do some reports from the field, but usually throws in his comments from one of the BBC’s studios.

He loves to ski, and is pretty good at it, too. After being injured, he took a course for skiers that were disabled. Gardner was able to ski by using a sit ski (also called a bob ski), which allows a disabled person to ski while they sit down.

Gardner is also an avid bird watcher. He was in Papua New Guinea, he went with Benedict Allen, both worked on a documentary called “Birds of Paradise: The Ultimate Quest” where they were looking for elusive birds of paradise. This was a life long ambition that Gardner had, since he is an experienced birdwatcher. It included the King of Saxony. The documentary was aired over two weeks, in two parts.

He married Amanda Jane Pearson in the year 1997, with whom he has two kids.

“Crisis” is the first novel in the “Luke Carlton” series and was released in the year 2016. Luke Carlton was a Special Boat Service commando, and currently he works under contract to MI6 for some of the most dangerous missions they get.

He is sent into the jungles in Colombia to look into a British intelligence officer’s murder, and winds up a part of a plot that has some horrifying international aspects. He is hunted, captured and tortured while on the run from a very powerful and ruthless drug cartels and a psychotic leader that wants revenge that South America has. Luke is in a race against time and survival to keep big disaster from happening. London will be targeted, and the weapon is highly diabolical and there is even an ingenious means of delivery involved.

Some feel this is a stellar debut novel, and hope that this is an author that sticks around to write more novels. Readers were hooked on things from the very start of the novel, as it was hard for them to put down because of the suspense, drama, action, fast moving plot, and thrilling nature of the story. Fans of the novel found this to have all of the pieces that make up a great thriller novel. Luke is both likable, but at the same time, he is not entirely invincible. This is something that makes him a lot more attractive, since he is a more human protagonist that is not perfect throughout all of his books. He uses the knowledge that he has to make a great page turner of a novel that keeps readers flipping the pages throughout. Some hope that Luke will show up again in one of Gardner’s works.

“Ultimatum” is the second novel in the “Luke Carlton” series. Luke Carlton helps stop an attack on London, and becomes a full-fledged SIS member, and is given the job of case officer who runs agents. He is to go undercover and into Iran to recruit and turn one of the officers from the infamous group that is called the Revolutionary Guard Corps. Rumor is that a group of conservatives, within the IRGC, is not liking the direction the post-revolutionary Iran is taking and preparing something that should embarrass the Iranian government. Not to mention, scare the country’s new allies, that are located in the west.

Intelligence services are needing to know about the who and the what pretty quickly. While in on an official visit to the country of Iran, a senior British government minister disappears, and his protection officers are found dead.