Hard Landing cover art

Hard Landing

The 1st Spider Shepherd Thriller

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Hard Landing

By: Stephen Leather
Narrated by: Paul Thornley
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About this listen

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©2004 Stephen Leather
Action & Adventure Modern Detectives Mystery Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Suspense Thriller & Suspense Thriller Fiction Crime Exciting

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Critic reviews

Let Spider draw you into his web, you won't regret it.
A taut-page turner, it gives fascinating insight into life behind bars.
As tough as British thrillers get, Hard Landing is a gripping and enjoyable read.
All stars
Most relevant
Loved excellent it real seat of the pants stuff and Paul Thornley makes it better

Brilliant Thriller

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Many thanks, loved the storyline, the characters, would make a good film or TV series. Looking forward to the next Stephen Leather audio book.

Very Enjoyable

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Never listened to any Spider Shepherd or Stephen Leather before. Picked this book based purely on the reviews of one later in the series so thought I’d start at the beginning. Really well written, easy to follow and exciting. Will be listening to more in the series

Great story right from the start

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Wow! OMG! What a book. Although there are various threads and ways to read the Dan Shepherd Thriller series I think this could be the best..There was everything in this book. It's realism was frightening at times. It was light hearted in places, emotional in others and downright brutal in others. This book has absolutely everything you could want in good read. Whilst primarily crime related, this book has elements of romance, humour, violence,kindness but most importantly, reality and passion. The breadth of knowledge of the author is astounding. Mixed with groundbreaking and accurate research the narrator does an awesome job breathing the life and reality into the reading..
I usually read about 30 minutes a night. In this instance the entire nook was complete in 4 days. It was that good and that compelling.

I would have preferred a different ending because I think that this could have been woven into another serial but this books stands out as a standalone 1st or 20th read or as a series. The story of Dan Shepherd continues. I will definitely be continuing to read this series further. Stephen Leather is, without doubt, one of the best witty, gritty, outstanding thriller writers of our time.

The first and perhaps the most emotional in the Dan Shepherd Series

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Been listening to Andy McNab books for a while and needed something as gripping and I’ve found them. First in the series and can’t wait to listen to the rest of them.

Great book

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