Customer Reviews

Hard Landing

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just finished reading Hard Landing, my first Stephen Leather action thriller I read on my Kindle. I was posting back & forth with the author in an effort to let him know that his action stories were NOT available to U.S. customers. Finally several of his titles did become available and I jumped right on a few and picked up Hard Landing and The Vets. Stephen Leather's novels have action, suspense, and well crafted characters. I definitely want to read the further adventures of Dan `Spider' Shepherd (the main character in Hard Landing). About 5 years ago I read "The Chinaman" by Leather (paperback), and I have "The Eyewitness" on my shelf right now. I was looking forward to being able to read all of Leather's action style thrillers on my Kindle. Spider Shepherd is a tough as nails character (a British Chuck Norris?) that I found fun to read about. Shepherd had to go undercover in a Category A prison. Not for the faint of heart. I was so caught up in the last 20% of the book that I seem to be reading the book faster and faster! As if reading it faster made any difference.

Overall I enjoyed the book very much and I am looking forward to reading more stories about Spider Shepherd. In the next couple of weeks I plan on reading The Vets by Stephen Leather as well. Hopefully by then the rest of the Dan Shepherd novels will be AVAILABLE once again on U.S. Kindles (at one point there were about 12 of Stephen Leather's action thrillers for sale on U.S. Amazon. Then about 6 or 7 of them were pulled back for formatting problems).

HARD LANDING was the first in the Stephen Leather's series of thrillers starring Dan "Spider" Shepherd, an ex-SAS trooper now assigned to an elite Metropolitan police unit tabbed for deep undercover operations when the usual enforcement methods can't nab the bad guys. Dan's nickname came to be while on an SAS survival training mission and he won a bet on who could eat the most disgusting thing. One normally doesn't see "tarantula" on the menu even in the greasiest curry house.

HARD LANDING was followed by Soft Target and Cold Kill (Dan Shepherd Mysteries), all three of which I've unintentionally read in reverse order. I'd recommend reading the first book first since, if nothing else, the series is a character development exercise for the protagonist.

Here, Spider is tossed into one of Her Majesty's maximum security prisons after establishing his cover as an armed desperado on an airport warehouse hold-up gone bad. Dan's mission is to nail big-time drug trafficker Gerald Carpenter, currently in the same lock-up awaiting trial. Carpenter is somehow communicating with the outside and masterminding the quashing of evidence and killing of witnesses that would otherwise convict him. Fearing Gerald will ultimately go free, Shepherd's job is to identify the leak and thus ensure Carpenter's conviction.

Spider's job prevents him from having a normal home life with his wife Sue and son Liam, a fact that causes the inevitable friction with the former and neglect of the latter and which is exacerbated by a tragedy that occurs while Dan is behind bars. I previously mentioned in my review of SOFT TARGET (dated 11/4/06 and entitled "A whopping cell phone bill, no doubt") that the author perhaps dwelled too much on Spider's spotty relationship with his son, which caused me to knock off a star from that otherwise splendid tale. With Shepherd, I'm looking for hard-boiled action not agonized soul-searching. (My other favorite fictional Tough Guy, Lee Child's Jack Reacher, never ever moons about engaging in self-castigating guilt trips.) I gave COLD KILL five stars (dated 6/29 06 and entitled "How hardball do we play it?") because it maximized the action and minimized the hand-wringing, and I'm giving HARD LANDING a full allocation of points for the same reason.

Until commencing with the Dan Shepherd series, Leather had pretty much eschewed an ongoing hero beyond a couple of books. With Spider, Stephen has struck gold, and I'm eagerly awaiting the fourth installment, HOT BLOOD.

This is a well written and enjoyable thriller that one is keen to plough through in good time. Although not exactly full of surprise or suspense it is engaging from the start. There is one shocking twist but it is largely immaterial to the main storyline so arguably pointless.

My only real criticism of the book is the terrible proof-reading. It is literally filled with typos, so much so that it becomes distracting towards the end of the book.

That said, an entertaining read.

Eight men are undertaking the armed robbery of a storage house at Gatwick airport. They intend to steal 24 boxes containing the latest Pentium chips worth nearly a million pounds. But things don't go according to plan: they are surrounded by the police and one policeman is shot. All of them are arrested, charged with attempted murder and armed robbery and brought on remand to Shelton prison, a Category A facility.

Among the arrested men there is "Bob McDonald" who is actually Dan Shepherd, member of Superintend Sam Hargrove's undercover unit, who infiltrated the gang of armed robbers. Indeed his arrest will serve the following purpose: at Shelton there is a certain Gerald Carpenter charged with bringing over 800 kilos of heroin to Britain and the police suspect him of running things from behind bars. The police need Shepherd to watch Carpenter closely because a few days earlier Trish Elliot, an undercover drugs officer, was shot and they believe that only Carpenter could afford to have it done. Since there may be a corrupt officer at Shelton, they need Shepherd to sniff out the inside man. This is going to be a perilous mission indeed in spite of Hargrove's assurance that if Shepherd needs to be pulled out, his team will always be there to back him up.

Very good suspense.

You know what I mean? Someone on TV or in a movie throws a punch but stops short of the face, because they were just trying to make the other person flinch? But the person doesn't flinch, so the move backfires? That looks cool, but it DOESN'T happen in real life.

What am I going on about? Well, my analogy sums up how I feel about this book. It's good - some great parts, in fact. But it's a bit too unflinching to be taken too seriously. And without giving too much away to those of you who are deciding whether to buy it or not, the 'infiltration' is too much of a cop out. Hardened gangster fooled by treadmill expert? Hmmmm...

But it was a good read. It's how alpha-male characters should be and you'll walk with a bounce in your step and a steely glint in your eye for the days between this as your bed-time reading.

I haven't read any of Stephen Leather's books and chose this as it was an absolute bargain on Kindle at 49 pence. I am a fan of books that are part of a series and as this was the first in the series featuring Dan `Spider' Shepherd I looked forward to it.

Dan Shepherd is a very likeable character. He is a former SAS guy who has quit the SAS to keep his wife happy. Now he works as an undercover policeman and his latest operation is not an easy one. He has to infiltrate a drug baron from within prison walls.

The story and the type of character you see as you read the synopsis may be nothing new, but he is certainly very enjoyable. Spider is a likeable guy who has a certain skill set and has been written as such. The main focus of the book is set around the story as opposed to the whole "getting to know him" kind of theme. You do get glimpses of the life Spider leads outside work as we are introduced to his wife and son, but Stephen Leather has it balanced perfectly.

The story was pretty fast paced and tended to keep me intrigued all the way through. There is lots of action as one would expect from this type of book and I found myself becoming a lot more engrossed once I was past the halfway mark. I have never (thankfully) been behind bars but as you read this book you get a real feel for it and I thought it was done really well.

Stephen Leather has a very loyal following and after reading this book I can see why. I really liked the character Dan Shepherd and certainly want to find out more about him. Although his personal life wasn't the main focus of this book, a major event relating to his personal life makes me want to find out how he deals with it next.

I am certainly looking forward to reading the second book in the series and would highly recommend this one.

I read this book a number of years ago and fell in love with dan Shepherd straight away.(not in a gay way I may add)and was over the moon to see it in kindle format. An excellent read that reminded me of Dan Shepherds entrance to the undercover world.

Cant get enough of this modern hero!!!!!!!

Great writer and so easily read and so difficult to put down.

Thanks Mr Leather for producing Mr Shepherd!!!!!!!!!

This is one fast-paced action adventure that shows Stephen Leather at his best. Not only can this author write sci-fi and horror, but the crime drama seems to be his best genre. In Hard Landing we find a SAS operative-turned-policeman doing undercover work. He's excellent at his work, but when he ends up undercover inside a prison it proves to be more than even he can handle. Add to this the death of Spider's wife, through an accident completely unrelated to the assignment he's working on, and his ability to operate is hindered.

Stephen Leather gives a well thought-out story in this book, the first of a series, proving we can always relay on Leather to bring us the type of stories we yearn for.

The book follows a well worn path of the nearly supernatural hero. The former SAS man now with an elite police undercover unit is a one man army. He goes undercover in a high security prison to undertake an outlandish (but interesting) assignment. Don't analyse just sit back relax and enjoy. The author includes enough detail to keep the reader's interest. The end tops everything that went before and that's saying something, but who cares the book is a good "junk" read. It's good for the beach, a long airplane trip or having time to kill in a hotel room.

This is a typical Stephen Leather thriller that will keep you enthralled to the end.