Showing results by author "Stephen Leather" in All Categories

Jungle-skilled, silent, and lethal, he had killed for the Viet Cong and then for the Americans. He had watched helpless as his two eldest daughters were raped and killed by Thai pirates. Now, all that was behind him. Quiet, hard-working, and unassuming, he was building up his South London take-away business - until the day his wife and youngest daughter were murdered by an IRA bomb. That was when the Chinaman, denied justice, decided on revenge...and went back to war.

Carolyn Castle is one of the most famous faces in the UK - a soap opera star known to millions. But when she witnesses a gangland killing, she has to ask herself if her fame could be the death of her. The killer is charismatic gangster Warwick Richards. A man more than capable of killing again to protect his secret. But does he know that Carolyn saw him commit murder?

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.

Vicky Lewis is a force to be reckoned with: not yet 30 and already Crew Manager in the London Fire Brigade, she's destined for great things. But when she enters a burning building to save a man's life and leaves it with catastrophic injuries, all that changes. She's shunted over to the Fire Investigation Unit, where she's forced to team up with cantankerous veteran Des Farmer, aka the Grouch.

Former SAS trooper turned undercover cop Dan 'Spider' Shepherd knows there are no easy solutions in the war against terrorism. But when a killer starts to target pardoned IRA terrorists, Shepherd has to put his life on the line to protect his former enemies. While he is undercover in Belfast, a grief-stricken Saudi whose two sons died under torture in the name of the War on Terror is planning to avenge their deaths. As the Muslim assassin closes in on his prey, Shepherd realises that the only way to save lives is to become a killer himself.

Villains across London are being beaten, crippled and killed by vigilante cops. Crime rates are falling, but the powers that be want Dan 'Spider' Shepherd to bring the wave of rough justice to an end. Shepherd has always known that there are grey areas in the fight against crime. And that sometimes justice gets lost in the process. He has never been comfortable investigating cops, but working for the Serious Organised Crime Agency means that he has no choice.

"Sorry, boys, my hands are tied. The order comes from Special Force HQ, and I can’t countermand it. So I’m giving you a warning order for an imminent active service operation. You’ve got forty minutes to call your wives and girlfriends and sort your kit." After the tragic loss of one of his patrol on an ill-advised training exercise in the Arctic Circle, Spider Shepherd and his comrades are angry at their incompetent commanding officer.

The daughter of an American politician has been kidnapped by white supremacists in Namibia. The kidnappers are demanding their own homeland in the heart of Africa and want to use the girl as leverage. The American government can’t agree to the demands but are reluctant to mount a high profile rescue mission. They need a deniable operation, and who better than the SAS to do the dirty work?

Somewhere along Route 74, Jack Nightingale takes a wrong turn, ending up at a nightmarish convention for serial killers. When things start getting out of hand, Nightingale has to step in to stop more blood being shed.

Dan 'Spider' Shepherd's career path - soldier, policeman, MI5 officer - has always put a strain on his family. So he is far from happy to learn that MI5 is using teenagers as informants. Parents are being kept in the dark and Shepherd fears that the children are being exploited. As an undercover specialist, Shepherd is tasked with protecting a 15-year-old schoolboy who is being used to gather evidence against violent drug dealers and a right-wing terrorist group. But when the boy's life is threatened, Shepherd has no choice but to step in and take the heat.

An Iranian defector shows his true colours and returns to his own country—taking a vital piece of intelligence equipment with him. The race is on to capture the turncoat and get the equipment back. Only one man is up for the job—American super-spy Richard Yokely. In the past Yokely served in the Army, the CIA, DEA and the NSA. But now he works for Grey Fox, the super secret agency that takes care of business that the White House would prefer stays hidden. And with a possible World War Three approaching, Yokely is America's only hope. The chase is on.

A dead body in the prayer hall of a mosque isn't the best start to the day for anyone. But for Detective Inspector Harold Porter it's all in a day's work. The problem is that DI Porter has been given a new partner - a young Muslim detective by the name of Mohammed Salim Nasri. Nasri and Porter are both British and both cops, but they look at the world - and the case - from completely different viewpoints. And when that case includes Islamic terrorists and knife-wielding fanatics that can only mean problems.

Tony Freeman rescued Mersiha when she was fighting for her life in war-torn Yugoslavia. Now she is his adopted daughter, the perfect all-American girl - and the past is another country. Or so it seems. But Mersiha has been trained to kill. And when she discovers that Freeman’s company is subject to a sinister takeover bid, she decides to help. Whatever the risks. The consequences of her actions are lethal - for Mersiha has unearthed a conspiracy of terrifying proportions.…

Who was Dan "Spider" Shepherd before he signed up as an undercover cop and began working for MI5? The Sandpit rewinds with an action-packed rollercoaster to his days in the SAS.... Dan Shepherd and his SAS team are sent into the badlands of Afghanistan to train the rebels who are battling Taliban fanatics. But what starts as a training mission in The Sandpit rapidly turns into a life or death struggle with Shepherd and his team very much in the firing line.

As a psychologist for the Los Angeles police department, Jamie Beaverbrook has seen it all. Or so he thinks until the night a full moon brings out the crazies, including Terry Ferriman. Trouble is, Terry isn’t exactly crazy. But how else can the police explain finding the girl in an alley off Sunset, crouched over a man’s lifeless body, her mouth smeared with blood? After an interview that is unsettling at best, the good doctor decides to dig deeper into Terry’s story. What he discovers is that a world he previously imagined to exist only in horror movies is actually flourishing in the shadows of L.A. Vampires are real....

Billy and Charlie thought their killing days were behind them. They used to be prolific life-takers, but old age finally caught up with them. Now they are ending their days in a dismal nursing home in Blackpool, with only their memories to keep them going. Memories of murder and mutilation. But when Archie turns up at the home, everything changes. Archie is a breath of fresh air, and he puts new life into Billy and Charlie—and before long, they realise that it's time to start killing again.

Geoff Howells, a government-trained killing machine, is brought out of retirement and sent to Hong Kong. His brief: to assassinate Chinese Mafia leader Simon Ng. Howells devises a dangerous and complicated plan to reach his intended victim - only to find himself the next target.

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.

Not all terrorists are driven by religion or politics. Dan "Spider" Shepherd and his SAS team are on the trail of a terrorist whose motives are much more personal. Sabit Kusen wants revenge and doesn’t care how many innocents he kills along the way. Shepherd and his team hunt their quarry around the world - from Athens to Paris to Zurich to Singapore and on to Sydney - but the elusive Kusen is always one step ahead of them. Can Shepherd catch Sabit Kusen before he carries out his most audacious attack? And does he have what it takes to pull the trigger to end the fanatic’s reign of terror?

When career criminal Terry Greene is sentenced to life for a murder he didn't commit, his wife has two choices: to walk away from the criminal empire he'd built up, or to take it over - to become as big a gangster as her husband. So far as Samantha "Sam" Greene is concerned, there is no choice. All the family's assets are tied up in the business, and the family means more to her than anything else.