Showing results by author "Stephen Leather" in War & Military

Buckle up for Underdogs, an adrenaline-fueled action-thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of the Spider Shepherd series. Perfect for fans of Lee Child and James Patterson. ‘He has the uncanny knack of producing plots that are all too real’ – DAILY MAIL 'A writer at the top of...

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...

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.

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...

MI5 officer David White was always a good father, so when his daughters want to go to a music festival in Israel, he agrees to take them. But his daughters are killed in the Hamas massacre that left 1,400 innocent civilians dead. White is taken hostage down in the tunnels under Gaza and Dan 'Spider' Shepherd and a crack SAS team are sent in to rescue him. Back in London, White is a changed man. He wants revenge for what happened to his family and wants to kill the men who planned and financed the Hamas attacks.

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.

"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.

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.

Dan 'Spider' Shepherd was sipping his first coffee of the day as the sweat from his morning run slowly dried on his skin. Kept on standby in Cyprus, Shepherd and his patrol mates are getting fed up with the lack of action. When they're offered the opportunity to spend some time in Nepal, they jump at the chance. Whilst there, they meet an SAS living legend, and are roped into a mission.

Dan Shepherd stared at the canvas ceiling above his bed as the dawn light slowly strengthened. His tent was pitched on the edge of the airfield outside Sarajevo in Bosnia. 1995, and Dan 'Spider' Shepherd is on active service as a paratrooper in war-torn Sarajevo. Frustrated by the army, when he is tasked with accompanying an SAS patrol in the area, he realises that the SAS is where he belongs.

"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.

"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.

Dan 'Spider' Shepherd was standing on the flight deck of an RAF Hercules C-130, leaning on the back of the pilot's seat and anxiously scanning the horizon ahead of them in the first faint light of dawn. Spider Shepherd and his patrol mates are heading back to Cyprus when an urgent situation arises, and they are pressed into action. A sensitive operation planned by HQ, they are sent into the Arabian desert to take on a group of dangerous terrorists.

"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.

"It isn’t a part-time job, it’s a full-time, unrelenting commitment, and to become one of the inner elite you must expect to make sacrifices at the expense of family, friends, and your career.” Dan Shepherd is on a jungle training course in Belize as part of his SAS selection. Along with Liam, Geordie, and Jimbo, he is chosen for further training to see if he makes the cut for the Sabre Squadron Troop. Taken out on real operation patrol, the men run into trouble with Guatemalan troops in the disputed province.

"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.

"Dan 'Spider' Shepherd shifted position slightly, trying to ease the pressure from the rocks beneath him and the ammo belt pressing into his chest. He lay prone, scanning the terrain through his sniper scope." After the Taliban unleash an attack on a military checkpoint, Spider Shepherd suspects foul play. He was too late to stop the attack, but he’s determined to find out how they knew where to strike. With the help of a local boy named Karim, he decides to investigate.

"Spider Shepherd squatted on his heels outside his tent, drinking his first brew of the day from a battered mug as he watch the wind stirring dust devils from the dirt floor of the compound." When an inexperienced officer sends out innocent paratroopers to be betrayed by a surrendered Taliban sniper, Spider Shepherd is the man chosen to clean up the mess. With his old friends Jock and Geordie to help, along with SAS hopeful Lex, can they take their revenge? Or are they just putting themselves in the kill zone?