Showing results by author "Stephen Leather" in All Categories

Supernatural detective Jack Nightingale used to be a police negotiator in a previous life—back in the days before he confronted devils and demons for a living. So when a young woman embarks on a killing spree in a Houston mansion, Nightingale is the perfect choice to intervene. But there is nothing that Nightingale can do to stop the slaughter. And there is worse to come. More killings. More bloodshed. More young women with murderous intentions.

This collection of stories goes back to Dan “Spider” Shepherd’s SAS days, and the missions that shaped him. From his training in the welsh hills and the jungles of Belize, through to his early missions in Sierra Leone and the Middle East, these nine stories chart his rise through the SAS, and his involvement with the elite Sabre Squadron. Along with his comrades Jimbo, McKay and Geordie, Spider puts his life on the line on active duty…and sows the seeds of his future career.

When Navy SEALS track down and kill Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, it's obvious there was a traitor on the inside. After the false friends are revealed to be two British students, Malik and Chaudhry - former Islamic fundamentalists recruited by MI5 - they become targets themselves. Dan 'Spider' Shepherd must teach the pair how to survive undercover with al-Qaeda closing in. But Spider is not used to playing the handler.

Friendships forged in the heat of combat can be stronger than anything. So when SAS trooper Matt Standing is told that the former Navy SEAL who saved his life is in trouble, he doesn't hesitate to go to his aid - even if that means flying halfway around the world to Los Angeles. Navy SEAL-turned-bodyguard Bobby-Ray Barnes has been accused of killing the man he was supposed to be protecting. Three other bodyguards were also killed, and now Bobby-Ray is on the run. The dead client was a Russian oligarch with connections to the Kremlin.

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.

People-smuggling, counterfeit currency and attempted murder. It's all in a day's work for undercover cop Dan 'Spider' Shepherd. But what starts as a run-of-the mill investigation quickly turns into a matter of life and death when he uncovers a terrorist cell on a mission of death and destruction. The target: hundreds of passengers on a cross-channel train deep below the English Channel.

“You’re going to hell, Jack Nightingale”: They are words that ended his police career. Now Jack’s a struggling private detective – and the chilling words come back to haunt him. Nightingale’s life is turned upside down the day that he inherits a mansion from a man who claims to be his father. It comes with a warning that Nightingale’s soul was sold at birth and a devil will come to claim it on his 33rd birthday – just three weeks away.

What goes around comes around. Jack Nightingale learned that as a cop and discovered that it was just as true in the world of the supernatural. His life changed forever on the day he failed to stop a young girl throwing herself to her death. Ever since, he’s been haunted by thoughts that he could have done more to save her. Now her cries for help are louder than ever. Is she trapped in eternal torment? Or are the forces of darkness torturing and deceiving him in order to regain the ultimate prize – his soul?

SAS trooper Matt 'Lastman' Standing is a lethal killing machine with experience in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Plus he's worked with French in the past. It's not a mission he wants, but Standing made a bad choice in his past, and it has come back to haunt him. Now he's hunting French in the lawless Wild West forests of Humboldt County, where the US produces most of its legal - and illegal - cannabis. But French isn't the only predator in the wilderness - there are Mexican cartels, Russian Mafia and Hungarian gangsters - and Standing has to overcome them all to get to his target.

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?

February, 2022. Russia invades Ukraine, the biggest attack on a European country since World War I. Matt 'Lastman' Standing and a crack SAS team are sent into the war zone. Their mission - to help the Ukrainians defend their country from the Russian invaders. But when Russian mercenaries begin committing atrocities and war crimes in occupied Ukraine, MI6 decides to change the rules of engagement.

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.

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.

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.

Thailand 1996. The Year of The Rat. Pete, a young travel writer, wanders into a Bangkok go-go bar and meets the love of his life. Joy is the girl of his dreams, young, stunningly pretty, and one of the Zombie Bar's top-earning pole dancers. What follows is a roller-coaster ride of sex, drugs, and deception, as Pete discovers that his very own private dancer is not all that she claims to be. And that far from being the girl of his dreams, Joy is his own personal nightmare.

Professional killers are carrying out hits for the Iranian government across the European continent, hitting targets amongst the wealthiest and most privileged. After a slew of murders in London, MI5 decide that enough is enough: they are going to have to hit back at the hitmen for hire. Dan 'Spider' Shepherd, the secret service's most dangerous weapon, is tasked with infiltrating the organisation's ranks and cutting off its head. But just how deep does this hydra go?

The target—The Prime Minister. The assassins—hard-bitten jihadists with nothing to lose. The only man who can stop them? Dan 'Spider' Shepherd. But Shepherd's reputation is also on the line—he helped get one of the jihadists into the UK during the final days of the War in Afghanistan. Now he has to track down the man whose life he once saved. But the assassins aren't lone-wolf killers—someone much more devious is pulling their strings.

Dan 'Spider' Shepherd is used to putting his life on the line. Working for an elite undercover squad, he has lied, cheated and conned in order to bring Britain's most wanted criminals to justice. But when a powerful drugs baron starts to kill off witnesses to his crimes, Shepherd is given his most dangerous assignment yet. He has to go undercover in a top-security prison, a world where one wrong move will mean certain death.

Mickey and Mark Moore are ordinary decent criminals - hard men who live by their own code and leaders of a gang that has made millions at the point of a gun. But when Dan 'Spider' Shepherd is sent to infiltrate the tightly knit team of bank robbers, he discovers that he has more in common with them then he first thought. And that perhaps being a career criminal isn't the worst thing in the world.

There's only one thing more dangerous than a corrupt cop...and that's a corrupt cop with a gun. When a group of armed police in an elite unit turns maverick and starts to rip off drug dealers at gunpoint, undercover cop Dan 'Spider' Shepherd is given his most dangerous mission so far. Shepherd is ordered to infiltrate the tight-knit team, to gain their confidence and to ultimately betray them.Facing men with guns is nothing new for the former SAS trooper, but it's the first time he's had to investigate his own. And the job couldn't have come at a worse time for him.