Dan Shepherd Series (1-16) - Stephen Leather

Written by Stephen Leather
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Requested

1. Hard Landing
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.

2. Soft Target
The second book 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

3. Cold Kill
“While investigating a crew of people-traffickers…Dan Shepherd discovers a cross-Channel currency-smuggling operation. Posing as a low-level criminal, Shepherd infiltrates the gang, befriending its London soldiers and establishing contact with the Albanian gangster who masterminds the business from his swank Paris flat. As Shepherd soon discovers, currency-smuggling isn’t the only business these guys dabble in. With the help of a government contact, they’ve been churning out fake British passports, a scam that eventually finds Shepherd surrounded by Semtex and racing to foil a terrorist plot…The story builds to a boil as Shepherd, piecing together the terrorists’ plans as he goes, lands aboard a Paris-bound Eurostar train with four suicide bombers as his fellow passengers. It’s a grand finale that’ll have readers on edge. Nicely, and seemingly effortlessly, done.”

4. Hot Blood
Dan Shepherd is used to putting his life on the line. It goes with the territory when you’re an undercover cop. Now working for Britain’s top anti-organized 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 realize that the hostage has been abandoned by the British government and that, officially, nothing is being done to rescue him. And with the execution only days away, Shepherd knows that the only way to save his friend’s life is to put himself on the firing line in the most dangerous city in the world—Baghdad.

5. Dead Men
Undercover cop Dan “Spider” Shepherd knows there are no easy solutions in the war against terrorism. When a killer starts to target pardoned IRA terrorists, Shepherd must 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 assassin closes in on his prey, Shepherd realizes that the only way to save lives is to become a killer himself.

6. Live Fire
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 than he first thought—and that perhaps being a career criminal isn’t the worst thing in the world. As Shepherd and his Serious Organized 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.

7. Rough Justice
Dan “Spider” Shepherd is sent undercover to investigate a group of policemen in the Territorial Support Group. Fed up with all the paperwork and the fact that the system is geared to support the criminals rather than the victims, they have started to act as vigilantes, planting forensic evidence to frame known criminals, and moving on to more drastic methods. Spider is far from happy about deceiving fellow policemen, and things are complicated on other fronts for him too: his friend Jimmy Sharpe is tied up in an undercover investigation that is causing problems, and he’s discovered an extremely disturbing film on his son’s cell phone.

8. Fair Game
Dan “Spider” Shepherd is working for MI5, investigating Somali pirates with links to terrorism in Britain. Meanwhile, the crew of a yacht (including the prime minister’s god-daughter) has been kidnapped by the pirates and is being held hostage in Somalia. A covert operation run by MI5 hopes to kill two birds with one stone. Shepherd will go undercover on a container ship they know will be targeted by the pirates, and hopefully will discover not only where the yacht’s hostages are being held but also the ringleaders behind the terrorist plans. At the same time though, Shepherd is being hunted down by the Real IRA. And now that he’s on the container ship his family are alone and vulnerable

9. False Friends
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?

10. True Colours
Nothing spreads like fear . . .

When a set of Russian oligarchs are assassinated in London, the Russian expat community become anxious. One man appeals to the British government for protection and MI5 assigns Spider Shepherd to the case. But he soon discovers that the killings aren’t political - they’re personal, and the assassin is much nearer than anyone could conceive.

And that’s not the only score Spider must settle. Asked by a group of ex-colleagues to hunt down a former Taliban tyrant who has claimed UK asylum by assisting the British government, Spider is forced to decide between his sense of justice and his job.

For as he struggles to save the life of one man, he’s on a path to extinguish another

11. White Lies
an ‘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.

12. Black Ops
WHO CAN YOU TRUST IF YOU CAN’T TRUST YOURSELF? Spider Shepherd’s MI5 Controller, Charlie Button, has gone rogue, using government resources to get revenge on the men who killed her husband. Spider is told to betray her. Worse, he’s asked to cooperate with his nemesis at MI6, Jeremy Willoughby Brown, in taking Charlie down. And he will have to cross the assassin, Lex Harper, currently on the trail of two Irish terrorists, who may be able to lead him to his ex-boss. Meanwhile, Spider’s sixteen-year-old son is caught with drugs, expelled from school and threatened with prosecution. But the drug police offer Spider a deal: go undercover, unmask a local dealer and his son will go free. Spider has no option but to cooperate. But is he any better than Charlie, using work resources to resolve personal issues? There’s little time to debate because another high profile mission is about to engulf him. President Vladimir Putin is about to visit the UK and a father who lost his son on the downed Malaysian plane over the Ukraine holds Putin directly responsible for his death and wants revenge. Along with everything else, it’s down to Spider to stop the assassination of a head of state on British soil.

13. Dark Forces
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..

14. Light Touch
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.

15. Tall Order
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 .

16. Short Range
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.