Customer Reviews

Live Fire

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

 

 

In LIVE FIRE, author Stephen Leather's hero of several novels, Dan "Spider" Shepherd, an undercover operative with Her Majesty's Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), is off to Thailand to infiltrate a Pattaya-based British gang of master bank robbers that periodically returns home to replenish the funds for its exorbitant lifestyle. Meantime in London, a home-grown cell of Muslim jihadists is planning a bloody outrage that'll kill hundreds. Because of Spider's particular karma, the two plots ultimately intersect.

Leather spends much of his time living in Thailand. Therefore, it's no surprise that the storyline of LIVE FIRE puts Shepherd there for most of the narrative, but is somewhat surprising that the author has taken so long in the series to do so. Leather's physical description of Pattaya and its status as "the biggest single prostitution center in the world" suggests a comfortable familiarity with the place. (For a depiction of the Thai sex industry, see Stephen's excellent novel, Private Dancer.)

For readers whose first encounter with Spider is LIVE FIRE, the plot deserves 5 stars. For one such as me, who's followed his exploits over the years, it rates 4. The Shepherd character has perhaps become too familiar and/or I've become jaded.

In order to introduce the new reader to Dan's career path with SOCA, the narrative inevitably begins with the end game of a crime caper from which Spider must extract himself as the cops close in but before his cover is blown. Then, he immediately gets new marching orders to follow for the duration of the story from his boss, Charlotte "Charlie" Button. Subsequently, there are a couple pages in which Dan, a single father, has a guilt trip when he tells his young son, Liam, and his dead wife's parents that he's off on another job and won't be around to spend quality time. (While I know this digression establishes Spider's just-a-regular-bloke humanity to newbies, perhaps next time we could move forward a decade when Liam is interested in girls and won't miss Dad so much.)

It's in LIVE FIRE that Dan is first inferred to be carrying a torch for his boss, Charlie Button, for which felling evidence surfaces during a visit to one of Pattaya's bars:

"There were two pneumatic blondes dancing topless and a stunning redhead in a red thong and high heels doing a solo on the second podium ... Two more girls joined the redhead. One was a blonde with wavy hair, green eyes and milk-white flawless skin, the other a brunette with a pageboy hair-cut and dark brown eyes. She was like Charlotte Button, Shepherd thought, disconcerted.

'You like her?' asked Sergei.

Shepherd reddened like a schoolboy who'd been caught looking at a pornographic magazine. 'She's fit,' he said."

Now, I bring this up because I think Button one of the more intriguing characters of the Spider series. Plus, I suspect that she's hot. So I'd like to take the cheeky liberty of suggesting to the author the emphasis of a future book, i.e. that the narrative focus be on Charlie with Spider as an ancillary character. Thus, the saga of the latter can continue, albeit through the perspective of someone else, while a different facet of Dan's world can be developed and the repetitive mold of the series as a whole broken. Thinking outside the box.

Alternatively, some act of violence by one of the jihadist groups fermenting in the U.K. might seriously cripple or kill Liam. The emotional devastation could transform Shepherd into an agent of vengeance. One of Leather's first books, The Chinaman (Stephen Leather Thrillers), took that general approach, and it was one of his best reads.

Are you with me on this, Stephen?

All of this said, I'll keep reading installments of the Spider series for as long as they continue to be penned; I'll even put them ahead of any of Andy McNab's thrillers in the unread queue on my bookshelf.

This is just another Stephen Leather classic. So easily read and so hard to put down. I just wish the author could type faster and get more Dan Shepherd books churned out. Dan never disappoints,,,,,

I recently finished reading another book in the riveting thriller series about Dan "Spider" Shepherd by English novelist Stephen Leather. It's interesting that part of LIVE FIRE's plot takes place in Pattaya, Thailand, a place I had never heard of before reading the novel. This morning, though, I read the name of this idyllic beach resort in an AP News Story. Pattaya is presently in the grip of anti-government rioters. The East Asian Summit that was to take place there has been canceled because of political unrest in the country. What a coincidence. Of course, that has nothing to do with the plot of this very good novel.

Suffice it to say, I found Shepherd's further adventures to be as exciting as in the previous 5 or 6 novels about the undercover cop for The Serious Organised Crime Agency "SOCA". There was something in the book that I found disturbing...namely, the subplot about fanatical "Home Grown Islamo-fascist Terrorists" planning a massacre of two hundred or more innocent Brits to broadcast via the media that "Europe is the Cancer - Islam is the Answer." (Hence, my awarding 4.5 stars and not 5.) I prefered the rest of the book and Dan's insertion into the British Gang of Professional Thieves, led by the high living Moore brothers who are based in Pattaya, and his eventual acceptance by the brothers as a team player in their next Big Heist on English soil. Dan has to race against time to...well, I won't spoil it for you, but there is a surprise twist at the end of the book I didn't expect.

I understand that Stephen Leather is thinking about writing a book centered on the character of Charlotte "Charlie" Button, Dan's Boss at SOCA. It's time Dan became involved romantically with a beautiful, strongwilled woman. He's been alone for far too long.

I wholeheartedly recommend this novel to fans of Leather's other books and those who are reading him for the first time. While it would help the reader to know about "Spider's" past, it is not necessary to enjoy the story, as this book can stand by itself.

This was my first Spider Shepherd novel and although it is the sixth in the series it did not detract from my experience. I enjoyed it. Leather is such a prolific writer that I get the feeling he has three speeds: good, better and best. The Chinaman is the best I have read by Leather, which I thought was superb. Live Fire was a nice intro to the series for me and I will read another for sure. I like crime fiction set in Asia and this one fits the bill with much of the action taking place in Thailands tawdry Pattaya City. I learn more about fundamentalist Islam religious beliefs through Leather than anywhere else. The dueling stories contrasted well and both held my interest throughout. A good, quick read even at 472 pages.

This was my first Stephen Leather book I read and I am now on my 14th Stephen Leather book! I picked up the book whilst on holiday in Pattaya and from the very start I was sucked into the drama and action. Dan "Spider" Shepherd is an undercover cop working for The Serious Organised Crime Agency "SOCA" and is sent to Pattaya to infiltrate a team of bank robbers. As he gets closer to the gang, a group of home-grown Islamic fundamentalists undertake a campaign of terror in London and only he can stop them. It is a fantastic read and highly recommended to anyone that is after an action packed read.

Stephen Leather does not write bad novels, just those within the scale of good to very good indeed. This falls to the lower end of that scale but is still a solid thriller.
'Spider' Shepherd is an undercover officer who is inserted into the world of the bad guys, as illustrated in the previous books, all of which are worth picking up. Here Spider is after a bunch of British bank robbers who live in Thailand and commute to the UK for the occasional big bank heist. As Spider gets closer to the gang, there are a group of terrorists also planning something in London, and eventually their paths will cross.....
Although not quite up to previous standards this is not bad. The finish is a little hurried and there are a few moments where you do think "hang on, why didn't he..." but overall not a bad way to while away a few hours.