Showing results by narrator "Paul Thornley" in All Categories

As an MI5 agent, Spider is used to going undercover, but when he's asked to assume the identity of the contract killer hired to take out President Vladimir Putin, he knows he'll become a wanted man. And things are about to get more complicated: Spider is told that his MI5 controller and close friend Charlotte Button has been running an off-the-books assassination operation, taking vengeance on the men who killed her husband.

Dan 'Spider' Shepherd is used to putting his life on the line. It goes with the turf when you're an undercover cop. Now working for the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Shepherd is pitting his wits against the toughest criminals in the country. But when the man who once saved his life is kidnapped in the badlands of Iraq, thrown into a basement and threatened with execution, Shepherd has to decide whether his loyalties lie with his country, his career or his friend.

When an ISIS bombmaker arrives at Heathrow Airport asking for asylum in exchange for revealing details of his paymasters, Shepherd is given the case. The bombmaker specialises in drone strikes, and homegrown jihadists that he has trained are already back in the UK, planning their attacks. But before he'll agree to talk, the terrorist insists that his wife and son are rescued from a refugee camp in Turkey. Shepherd is tasked with bringing the family back to London, but he soon discovers that dark forces are out to stop him. And if he fails, hundreds will die.

A threat has been made. An ultimatum delivered. Innocent people are in mortal danger. The gripping new bestseller from the master of the race-against-time thriller.8am: an explosion blasts through a cafe in central London. Minutes later a call is made to a local radio station: ‘We’ve just detonated a bomb. Another will explode shortly. The British Government has until 8pm tonight to meet all our demands, or a far greater attack will take place somewhere in the country that will bring fire down on all your heads.

Tough, resourceful, ruthless - as an SAS trooper, Nick Stone was one of the best. Now he's back on the streets. After a botched mission, the Regiment no longer want his services. But British Intelligence does - as a deniable operator. It's the dirtiest job in a very, very dirty world. In Washington, DC, it's about to get dirtier still. On the apparently routine tail of two terrorists, he discovers the bodies of an ex-SAS officer and his family. Soon he's on the run with the lone survivor of the bloodbath - a seven-year-old girl.

No publicity, no media. We move in silently, do our job, and melt away into the background. If you have the stamina, the willpower and the guts, we'll welcome you with open arms and make you one of us. And if you haven't, then it's been very nice knowing you. Eighteen years in the SAS saw Pete Winner, codenamed Soldier 'I', survive the savage battle of Mirbat, parachute into the icy depths of the South Atlantic at the height of the Falklands War and storm the Iranian Embassy during the most famous hostage crisis in the modern world.

Dan 'Spider' Shepherd is used to putting his life on the line - for his friends and for his job with MI5. So when one of his former apprentices is kidnapped in the badlands of Pakistan, Shepherd doesn't hesitate to join a rescue mission.But when the plan goes horribly wrong, Shepherd, ends up in the hands of al-Qaeda terrorists. His SAS training is of little help as his captors beat and torture him. Shepherd's MI5 controller, Charlotte Button, is determined to get her man out of harm's way, but to do that she's going to have to break all the rules.

A friend in need is a friend indeed. And no one is a better friend than hitman-for-hire Lex Harper. When a mate from his past ends up in a Bolivian prison, Harper doesn’t think twice about going to his aid. Beatings, rapes and murders are an everyday occurrence in the prison. But the only way to break his friend out is for Harper to put his own life on the line, in a place where death comes quickly and only the strong survive. Getting into the prison is easy enough – but can Harper get out? And how many people will he have to kill to make it back?

Detective Jack Nightingale fights his battles in the shadows, in the grey areas where demons and monsters seek their prey. In this collection of nine short stories, Nightingale matches wits against demons from Hell, monsters created by humans, and Satanists who have done their own private deals with the devil.

Somalia - a lawless, violent land, ignored by the West, ripped apart by civil war and famine, fought over by drug-fuelled, gun-crazy clan fighters. They want the world to sit up and take notice. They have a new and terrifying weapon - pirates. And now, the pirates have in their possession the young son of a Russian oligarch, snatched from a luxury yacht in the Seychelles. His father wants him back, will pay anything, stop at nothing to retrieve his boy. Up to now everything he has tried has failed.

New Orleans. They call it the Big Easy, but there’s nothing easy about Jack Nightingale’s latest case. Dead usually means dead, but corpses are coming back to life and carrying out targeted killings. The supernatural detective is called in to investigate and he soon discovers that Voodoo is behind the spate of murders. Whoever is making the dead rise obviously has a plan - a plan so heinous that even the Devils of Hell are concerned.... But there are darker forces at work. And they have Nightingale in their sights. His life - and his soul - are on the line.

Sidney Blattner is probably the most successful organised crime figure in London, but things are coming unstuck. Who would dare to execute his innocent brother down in Margate, and why? When Blattner attends the funeral, his chauffeur disappears, forcing Sid and his two minders to flee the seaside resort ignominiously in a Transit van.... Sidney calls in as many favours as he can to find out what is going on down in Margate but without success. Two of his aides, sent down to investigate, turn up murdered.

A year after his older brother made the ultimate sacrifice, Sergeant Major Luke Carter, decorated hero of 22 SAS, is sent to Perth on a recruiting job. His orders: select two candidates from the SASR for a highly sensitive mission on foreign soil. But when a sudden crisis threatens to derail the plan, Carter and his new colleagues find themselves forced into action on a high-stakes operation. One that has the potential to change the course of the war in Ukraine. So begins a deadly game of predator and prey, moving from the streets of Minsk to the cliffs above the Black Sea.

From Sunday Times bestselling author Simon Kernick - the UK's answer to Harlan Coben - come two electrifying novellas and three gripping short stories published in book form for the very first time. Fans of David Baldacci, Stuart MacBride and Peter James will not be disappointed.

Lee Arnold and Mumtaz Hakim run a detective agency in London's East End. But their latest case could have devastating consequences.A new client, Nasreen, has sought Hakim's help. Recently moved to a new house, and with a baby on the way, this should be an exciting time- but Nasreen has made friends in the community that she cannot tell her husband, Abdullah, about. And when a murder takes place close to their home, Nasreen suspects that Abdullah also has something to hide.

No one knows for sure who Richard Yokely worked for in the past - the Army, the CIA, DEA, NSA - he has carried out missions for them all. But now he works for Grey Fox, the super secret agency that takes care of business that the White House would prefer to keep under wraps. A vicious killer has been attacking schools in America, killing without mercy. And when it looks like the killer might be a former special-forces soldier who has gone rogue, Yokely could be the only man who can stop him.

Terrorists have shot down a British helicopter in West Africa and taken the crew hostage. Their lives are on the line and the British government is refusing to negotiate. The pilot is Liam Shepherd, and only his father - Dan 'Spider' Shepherd of MI5 - can help. Shepherd and an SAS team fly out to the badlands of Mali to rescue the kidnapped Brits. But the mission takes Shepherd away from an investigation in a high security prison that is about to explode into violence. Hundreds of lives are at risk, and Shepherd is running out of time.

John Sagan is a forgettable man. You could pass him in the street and not realise he's there. But then, that's why he's so dangerous. A torturer for hire, Sagan has terrorised - and mutilated - countless victims. And now he's on the move. DS Mark 'Heck' Heckenburg must chase the trail, even when it leads him to his hometown of Bradburn - a place he never thought he'd set foot in again. But Sagan isn't the only problem. Bradburn is being terrorised by a lone killer who burns his victims to death.

The Wentworth Asylum, once used to house thousands of people, now lies abandoned. People insist it is inhabited by an ex-inmate who now chops down those who enter with her ax. After two teenagers turn up dead in the asylum, a television crew head to the asylum in the hopes of catching footage of the haunting. And to ensure their safety, Jack Nightingale is sent with them. But is it merely an ax-wielding murderer which awaits them?

Chris Hutchinson is a man on the run. Imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, Hutch escapes from a British maximum security prison and starts a new life in Hong Kong. Then a ghost from his past catches up with him, forcing him to help a former terrorist break out of a Bankok prison. Or face life behind bars once more. Meanwhile the Drug Enforcement Administration wants to nail the vicious drug warlord responsible fo rflooding the States with cheap heroin.