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Stephen Leather

Stephen Leather's first hard-hitting, Dan 'Spider' Shepherd thriller, set in one of the most notorious and corrupt of British prisons.

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.

As Shepherd gambles everything to move in on his quarry, he soon realises that the man he is hunting is even more dangerous than the police realise. And that he is capable of striking outside the prison walls and hitting Shepherd where it hurts most.

(P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Paul Thornley

Hodder & Stoughton

The Spider Shepherd Thrillers

Hard Landing

The second hard-hitting action thriller in the bestselling Dan 'Spider' Shepherd series.

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 turn maverick and start 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.

As Shepherd finds himself in the firing line, he has to decide exactly where his loyalties lie.

(P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Soft Target

Dan 'Spider' Shepherd returns in the third stunning action thriller from bestselling author Stephen Leather.

Even deadlier than terrorists … are the men trying to stop them.

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.

With the clock ticking and the explosives primed, Shepherd and his colleagues have to decide just how far they are prepared to go to save innocent lives. And they realise that to avoid catastrophe, they have to be even more merciless than the terrorists.

(P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Cold Kill

The fourth book in the bestselling Dan 'Spider' Shepherd series, from the master of the gritty action thriller Stephen Leather.

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. 

Shepherd and his former SAS colleagues realise that the hostage has been abandoned by the Government and that officially nothing is being done to rescue him. And with the execution deadline only days away, Shepherd knows that the only way to stop his friend being murdered is to put himself in the firing line in the most dangerous city in the world - Baghdad. 

(P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Hot Blood

The fifth book in the bestselling Dan 'Spider' Shepherd series, from the internationally bestselling author. 

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 by striking out at two people close to Shepherd. As the Muslim assassin closes in on his prey, Shepherd realises that the only way to save lives is to become a killer himself.

(P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Dead Men

The sixth book in the bestselling Dan 'Spider' Shepherd series. 

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. 

As Shepherd and his Serious Organised Crime Agency colleagues plot the downfall of the Moore brothers, a more sinister threat stalks the streets of London. A group of home-grown Islamic fundamentalist fanatics embark on a campaign of terror the like of which Britain has never seen. Car bombs and beheadings are only the prelude of what they have planned. 

And Shepherd is the only man who can stop them.

(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Live Fire

The seventh book in the bestselling Dan 'Spider' Shepherd series. 

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. He has to go undercover with an elite group of officers who are at the sharp end of policing, risking their lives daily on the toughest streets in the Capital.

But Shepherd has hard decisions of his own to make when his family is in the firing line.

(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Rough Justice

The eighth book in the bestselling Dan 'Spider' Shepherd series. 

Kidnapping is one of the cruellest crimes - lives are put at risk for cold, hard cash. But when Somali pirates seize the crew of a yacht off the coast of Africa, they bite off more than they can chew.

One of the hostages has friends in high places and Spider Shepherd is put on the case. He goes deep undercover in an audacious plan to bring an end to the pirate gang's reign of terror.

But as Shepherd closes in on his quarry he realises that there's much more at stake than the lives of the hostages and that the pirates are involved in a terrorist plot that will strike at the heart of London.

(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Fair Game

THE TOP FIVE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER: The ninth book in the bestselling Dan 'Spider' Shepherd series. 

The most wanted man in the world is dead. Now those loyal to him seek revenge.

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. And with the line between mentor and friend beginning to blur, and a terrorist plot putting thousands of lives at stake, can he protect everyone before it's too late?

(P)2012 Isis Publishing

False Friends

The tenth instalment in all action thriller writer Stephen Leather's bestselling Spider Shepherd series.

The Russian oligarchs are the world's new elite. They treat the world as their plaything, travelling without borders and living lives of unimaginable luxury without fear or restraint. 

But when an assassin starts killing off some of the world's richest men, an oligarch with friends in high places seeks the protection of MI5. And Spider Shepherd is placed in the firing line.

But while Shepherd has to save the life of a man he neither likes nor respects, he has to deal with a face from his past. The Taliban sniper who put a bullet in his shoulder turns up alive and well and living in London.

And Shepherd is in no mood to forgive or forget.

(P)2013 Isis Publishing

True Colours

WHITE LIES is a fast paced, heart-pounding thriller that will have you hooked from the first minute until the last - the eleventh Spider Shepherd book in Stephen Leather's bestselling series.

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. Her only hope is to bring in America's finest - the elite SEALs who carried out Operation Neptune Spear - in a do-or-die operation to rescue the captives.

(P)2014 Isis Publishing

White Lies

The twelfth heart-pounding thriller in Stephen Leather's bestselling Spider Shepherd series.

In what could be his highest-profile mission ever, Dan 'Spider' Shepherd is called in to prevent the assassination of a head of state on British soil.

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. Spider owes his life to Button - but this discovery will stretch his loyalty to the limit…

(P) 2020 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

Black Ops

When you're caught between two evils, only the most decisive will survive. The thirteenth book in action supremo Stephen Leather's Spider Shepherd series is his most pulse-pounding yet . . . 

A violent South London gang will be destroyed if Dan 'Spider' Shepherd can gather enough evidence against them while posing as a ruthless hitman. What he doesn't know is that his work as an undercover agent for MI5 is about to intersect with the biggest terrorist operation ever carried out on British soil.

Only weeks before Shepherd witnessed a highly skilled IS sniper escape from a targeted missile strike in Syria. But never in his wildest dreams did he expect to next come across the shooter in a grimy East London flat.

Spider's going to have to proceed with extreme caution if he is to prevent the death of hundreds of people, but at the same time, when the crucial moment comes he will have to act decisively. The clock is ticking and only he stands between us and Armageddon....

'Let Spider draw you into his web, you won't regret it' Sun

(P)2016 Hodder & Stoughton

Dark Forces: The 13th Spider Shepherd Thriller

The 14th thriller in the Spider Shepherd series promises even more unputdownable action from The Sunday Times bestseller Stephen Leather.

Working undercover is all about trust - getting the target to trust you and then betraying them in order to bring them to justice.

But what do you do when you believe an undercover cop has crossed the line and aligned herself with the international drugs smuggler she was supposed to be targeting?

When a deep-undercover cop stops passing on intelligence about her target, MI5 sends in Dan 'Spider' Shepherd to check that she is on the straight and narrow.

Now two lives are on the line - and Shepherd discovers that the real danger is closer to home than he realised.

As Spider finds his loyalties being tested to the limit, an SAS killer is on a revenge mission in London and only Spider can stop him.

'[Leather] has the uncanny knack of producing plots that are all too real' Daily Mail

'Let Spider draw you into his web, you won't regret it' - Sun

(P)2017 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Light Touch

The 15th thriller in the Spider Shepherd series promises even more unputdownable action from the Sunday Times bestseller Stephen Leather.

He is one of the world's most ruthless terrorists, codenamed Saladin. He plans and executes devastating attacks and then, ghost-like, he disappears.

Ten years ago he blew a plane out of the sky above New York - and now he's struck again, killing dozens in a London strike.

But one of the latest victims is related to the acting head of MI5, who knows exactly who she wants on the case: Spider Shepherd.

Dean Martin, a psychologically damaged former Navy SEAL, is the only person in the world who can identify Saladin. But Martin was killed ten years ago - wasn't he?

Shepherd must find Martin and take him back to the killing fields on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Revenge on the world's most wanted terrorist is long overdue, and Shepherd is determined to be the one to deliver it …

******************

Praise for Stephen Leather

'A master of the thriller genre'

Irish Times

'As tough as British thrillers get … gripping' 

Irish Independent 

'The sheer impetus of his story-telling is damned hard to resist'

Sunday Express

(P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Tall Order

The explosive new thriller in the Spider Shepherd series

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.

And while Shepherd's problems mount up at work, he has even greater problems closer to home. His son Liam has fallen foul of the Serbian Mafia and if Shepherd doesn't intervene, Liam will die.

Praise for Stephen Leather

'A master of the thriller genre'

Irish Times

'As tough as British thrillers get … gripping' 

Irish Independent 

'The sheer impetus of his story-telling is damned hard to resist'

Sunday Express

(P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Short Range

The fight against terrorism never ends, and Dan "Spider" Shepherd is in the front line of Britain's defence against the extremists.

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.

(P) 2020 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

Slow Burn

The new edge-of-your-seat novel in the thrilling Spider Shepherd series

Who can you trust if you can't trust the people tasked with protecting the nation?

Murderous jihadists have been crossing the English Channel, passing themselves off as asylum seekers. MI5 have been keeping them under surveillance, but what starts as a simple terrorist takedown goes badly wrong and dozens of innocent civilians are killed in the heart of London.

And the screw is tightened when a bomb takes out senior members of the Secret Intelligence Service.

Someone within the security services has been working to their own agenda, and only Dan 'Spider' Shepherd can identify the bad apple. His search for the rogue agent takes him to Turkey and then to Dubai, where his masters order him to carry out a breathtaking act of revenge.

(P)2021 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The Spider Shepherd Thrillers - The book series

The Spider Shepherd Thrillers - The book series

The Spider Shepherd Thrillers books in order

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