John Lawton introduced his readers to Joe Wilderness two books ago and this is a welcome addition to the series. Hammer To Fall starts off in Berlin in 1938, just three years after the end of the second world war. This is a time when Berlin was occupied in the West by British, American and French forces and in the East by Russian forces. Along with Frank, an American captain, and Eddie, a lance bombardier in the army, Wilderness, an RAF corporal, are smuggling goods, mainly cigarettes and coffee, to Russian service people in East Berlin. The book, however, is mainly set in Finland during the 1960s where Wilderness, now an MI6 spy, is based and continuing with his smuggling activites by taking advantage of the vodka shortage in Russia to smuggle vodka across the border. He encounters Kostya in Finland who he first met in Berlin when Kostya asked them for peanut butter but was unable to pay for a consignment when his mother outwitted them all. As readers have come to expect, nothing is straightforward for Joe Wilderness and there is intelligence pointing to cobalt mining in the region of Finland where Kostya unexpectedly appears, cobalt being a vital component for the casing of atomic bombs. Hammer To Fall promises much intrigue and plenty of twists and turns to keep readers entertained.