Showing results by author "Stephen Leather" in All Categories

"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.

"So if you can’t find a helicopter anywhere in Sierra Leone for a lift-out, you’d better order up four body bags instead.” Spider Shepherd and his SAS mates are stranded, low on rations and ammunition, waiting for a ride to Freetown before they are overrun by rebels. Upon their return to the capital, they are pressed into service by MI6, tasked with destroying a rebel arms dump. But to do this, they must wade through infested swamps and face rebel soldiers. Many of the soldiers are boys.

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.

"The bosun explained that E & E was so important to the regiment that every badged soldier and officer must do an E & E every couple of years.... It was the ultimate test: You were good, or you were caught." The final hurdle in the SAS selection process - the E & E exercise. The aim is to evade capture and to resist interrogation when finally caught. So when Spider Shepherd is captured, he doesn’t immediately think anything is wrong.

Jack Solomon is a messenger of death. Working in the fractured remains of Yugoslavia, his task is to identify the victims of ethnic cleansing and to tell families that their loved ones are gone. Years of working in the killing fields have desensitised the former London policeman to the horrors of war, but when a truck containing 26 bodies is pulled from a lake, Solomon is unable to walk away from the case. He sets out to find the only survivor of the massacre, a young girl on the run from the killers. From the brothels of Sarajevo to the high-stakes world of Internet prostitution, Solomon discovers that the killers are closer to home than he thinks....

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.

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.

Premier League footballer Gabe Savage is on the way to one of the most important matches of his life when he gets a phone call from his wife. She has been kidnapped along with their young son. And the message from her captors is brutal: 'If your team wins, your family dies.' With the kickoff only hours away, there is only one person Gabe can turn to - his brother, Ray, a vicious London gangster. But a dark family secret means that he hasn't spoken to Ray for years. Can Ray help? And will he?

'The sheer impetus of his storytelling is damned hard to resist' Sunday Express Sunday Times bestselling author Stephen Leather's latest edge-of-your-seat thriller. ***** A standalone thriller from Sunday Times bestselling author Stephen Leather that takes us into the world of the London Fire...

When Jack Nightingale learns that there is a mysterious list of children who are at risk, he takes the case, spurred on by the fact that he knows one of the names, and that makes it personal. His investigation brings him up against a demon from hell who is being used on a mission of revenge. But if Nightingale is to save the children, and his own soul, he’ll need help from an old adversary.

"For eight hours Spider Shepherd had been lying up in a sand dune overlooking the six-lane highway that slashed through the desert like a knife. It was a moonless night, the blackness dotted with so many stars that looking up made his head spin." Fresh from a sniper mission in the Middle East, Spider Shepherd is sent to Afghanistan on a new assignment. Teamed up with former trainer Spud and Lex, a young Para, he receives intel that the man the Americans seek is hiding in the White Mountains.

When supernatural detective Jack Nightingale hears about a rash of suicides across London, he realises that it's more than a coincidence. Something has come from the bowels of Hell to wreak havoc in the world, and only he can stop it. But to do that he'll have to put his own soul on the line.

"So the men you will train as my bodyguards will be selected not on the basis of their physical fitness but purely on their loyalty to me. The men outside are all Bedu, of my own tribe. Their loyalty to me is absolute and unquestioning.” Spider Shepherd and his team are sent to the Middle East to train tribesmen as bodyguards for the ruling sheikh. He is slowly trying to modernise, but his rule is being threatened by his cousin, whose father was deposed in a bloodless coup.

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.

Why does a wealthy Scottish financier set up a drugs deal with the IRA? Jeopardise his career, endanger his family and lover by tangling with the East End underworld and a ruthless mercenary? The motive is simple: revenge for a cold-blooded act of murder. His adversary is a dangerous gangland boss whose connections stretch from the Highlands to London and beyond. More than a match for a newcomer, especially when his plans contain a fatal flaw, which will be discovered only when it is much too late…

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....

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?

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.…

New York City. With a population of almost 19 million people, it’s easy to remain anonymous - even if you’re a serial killer, torturing and murdering beautiful young women. The killer has another victim right now, locked in a basement somewhere in the city. For NYPD detectives Turner and Marcinko, it’s their job to sift through those 19 million and narrow their list to the one before it’s too late. And they’re sure they have the right man in their sights.

"We’re professional soldiers,” said Shepherd. “We fight for queen and country. There’s a hell of a difference between us and mercenaries.” Spider Shepherd and the rest of his men are called upon to stop a bunch of South African mercenaries who have disobeyed orders and plundered diamond fields in Sierra Leone from reaching the Liberian border.