Short Range

The 16th Spider Shepherd Thriller

By: Stephen Leather

Narrated by: Paul Thornley

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©2019 Stephen Leather

Critic reviews

It is the authenticity of this plot that grasps the imagination and never lets it go

As tough as British thriller writers get

The sheer impetus of his storytelling is damned hard to resist

This is one of my favourite thriller series and one that should be more widely recognised for its excellence . . . Leather's fluid prose makes the pages fly by

I’m done.

The death of Katra was totally unnecessary. The main character’s continuing action of putting his work ahead of his wife/girlfriend and child has kept me from fully embracing the character and now with the death of his girlfriend, I’m done with this series.