For a variety of reasons I have read everything ever published about Operation Frankton and I corresponded with Bill Sparks in the years just before his death. Robert Lyman, as someone recently said, has yet to produce a bad book and Operation Suicide is another winner. All the previous books on this subject, including Bill Sparks' own, "The Last of The Cockleshell Heroes" natually enough concentrated on the operation and the aftermath, triumph and tragedy together. Robert Lyman gives all the action period everything it deserves but for me what makes this book different is the meticulous research on the background to the raid and why it was so important. Details on the actual cargoes being discharged at Bordeaux make it clear that the blockade runners were regularly adding a vital contribution to Germany's war effort. Indeed the situation was undoubtedly so concerning that it says much for the moral standards of those then in charge of our war effort that they refrained from bombing the harbour because of the risk to French civilians.It must have been very tempting to flatten Bordeaux harbour but they didn't. There are many people in Afghanistan today who would have appreciated such a scrupulous policy. Whether or not, as Winston Churchill said, the raid shortened the war by six months, doesn't really matter. A small group of astonishingly brave men offered their lives to disrupt the enemy's flow of war materials and Robert Lyman tells their story beautifully. As with all things British the actual behind the scenes organisation left something to be desired and better communication and cooperation between MI6, SOE and the French Resistance would probably have saved more lives. That too is another fresh insight that Robert Lyman brings to this story. Operation Frankton has been described as the outstanding commando raid of the war and this author certainly does it justice.