Soft Target [Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Stephen Leather (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 30, 2005

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.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'A cracking good read ... Stephen Leather is a master of the thriller genre and Soft Target does not disappoint. The background to the drugs trade immediately grabs one's attention and the pace never lets up from then on. Leather gives the impression that he has done his research immaculately, and his attention to detail is immaculate. The result is a gripping read, the equal of anything of its nature being published on either side of the Atlantic.' -- Irish Times 'SOFT TARGET is a hard-boiled cop novel, written in a way that captures some of the urgency of large investigations. This is a breathless, exciting narrative about a male-dominated world and its peculiar loyalties.' -- Joan Smith, Sunday Times 'Leather can dispense high-adrenaline plotting but never at the expense of remembering that his characters are humans rather than Action Man dolls. In such books as The Long Shot, the plot never pulls along wafer-thin characters in its trail, Dan Brown-style ... It's Shepherd's pungently drawn personality that makes him such a memorable hero ... The various storylines are orchestrated with precision and the steadily accelerating tension is maintained with assurance ...' -- Barry Forshaw, Sunday Express 'Reading Stephen Leather at leisure is always a pleasure. The pacing of SOFT TARGET is superb ...' **** -- Ireland on Sunday 'A riveting read' -- Sunday Life, Belfast 'Pacey and compulsive' -- Huddersfield Daily Examiner 18991230 'The story of an undercover policeman investigating hardcore gangsters and corrupt cops keeps the pages turning nicely' -- Sydney Morning Herald 18991230 'Taut, suspenseful, tough-guy-with-heart fiction, perfect for a rainy afternoon' -- The Age, Melbourne 18991230 'Leather writes in the style of his subject matter - uncompromising and tough. His attention to detail when describing training and action completely satisfies and his research and knowledge makes you feel you are under the skin of his characters ... Stephen Leather in his 16th novel remains a formidable author. Exciting, absorbing, he targets a hard audience' -- Peterborough Evening Telegraph 18991230 'Stephen Leather should be nestling in your bookshelves alongside Frederick Forsyth and Jack Higgins' -- Daily Mail 'A whirlwind of action, suspense and vivid excitement' -- Irish Times on THE BIRTHDAY GIRL 'Stephen Leather's novel manages to put a contemporary spin on a timeless tale of revenge and retribution ... Leather's experience as a journalist brings a sturdy, gritty element to a tale of horror ... which makes THE EYEWITNESS a compelling read' -- Evening Herald, Dublin 'As tough as British thrillers get ... gripping' -- Irish Independent on HARD LANDING 'As high-tech and as world-class as the thriller genre gets' -- Express on Sunday on THE BOMBMAKER 'Exciting stuff with plenty of heart-palpitating action gingered up by mystery and intrigue ... Leather is an intelligent thriller writer' -- Daily Mail on THE TUNNEL RATS 'Sure to send chills down the spine of even the toughest customer.' -- Daily Telegraph, Sydney 'Leather, a former journalist, can dispense high-adrenaline plotting but never at the expense of remembering that his characters are humans rather than Action Dolls. In such books as The Long Shot, the plot never pulls along wafer-thin characters in its trail, Dan Brown-style...The various storylines are orchestrated with precision and the steadily accelerating tension is maintained with assurance. Leather is fascinated by the psychology of hired killers. How can an individual disarm all moral constraints and commission murder for hard cash? However, none of this moral equivocation gets in the way of his trademark action, authoritatively handled.' -- Sunday Express 'Reading Stephen Leather at leisure is always a pleasure. The pacing of SOFT TARGET is superb.' -- Ireland on Sunday 20050227 'SOFT TARGET is a hard-boiled cop novel, written in a way that captures some of the urgency of large investigations. This is a breathless, exciting narrative about a male-dominated world and its peculiar loyalties.' -- Joan Smith, Sunday Times 20050227 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Stephen Leather was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. Before that, he was employed as a biochemist for ICI, shovelled limestone in a quarry, worked as a baker, a petrol pump attendant, a barman, and worked for the Inland Revenue. He began writing full-time in 1992. His bestsellers have been translated into more than ten languages. He has also written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock and the BBC's Murder in Mind series. You can find out more from his website, www.stephenleather.com. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Isis Audio; Unabridged edition (July 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0753121476
• ISBN-13: 978-0753121474
• Shipping Information: View shipping rates and policies
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Stephen Leather was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. Before that, he was employed as a biochemist for ICI, shovelled limestone in a quarry, worked as a baker, a petrol pump attendant, a barman, and worked for the Inland Revenue. He began writing full time in 1992. His bestsellers have been translated into more than ten languages. He has also written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock and the BBC's Murder in Mind series. You can find out more from his website, www.stephenleather.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Boy's own adventure, November 19, 2005

By 

Beverley Strong (Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soft Target (A Dan Shepherd Mystery) (Paperback)

Just as some books are rather scathingly called "chick lit", this is the very opposite, a boy's own adventure, culminating in the story of the London terrorist bombings of recent times. Dan Sheperd is an undercover cop who is sent into all kinds of secret assignments. A former SAS member who is still coming to terms with the loss of his wife in a car accident, he is slotted into a group of SO19 police officers who handle special situation problems, but who are suspected of having a few loose cannons among their members. Dan is still operating as a so called hit man, in an effort to expose a big time mobster, whose wife conveniently wants him dead and has hired Dan in his role as hit man, to do the job. The SO19 cops who have gone bad, accept Dan into their ranks and plan their next coup against drug dealers, hoping to make some big money. The author has followed the real plot of the Muslim extremists in their plan to blow up the underground railway system in London and has included lots of technical details about the weaponry of both the police, the terrorists and their training programs. It's a good, fast read, even though it will probably appeal more to the boys.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A whopping cell phone bill, no doubt, November 4, 2006

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Soft Target (A Dan Shepherd Mystery) (Paperback)

It wasn't until I was well into SOFT TARGET that I realized it's apparently the second in the Dan Shepherd series. The third installment, COLD KILL, I'd read some months ago - see my review "How hardball do we play it" dated 6/29/06 - and the first, HARD LANDING, awaits on my unread shelf. I wish I'd read them in order, but who was to know? As I recall, even the Hardy Boys mysteries of my youth were sequentially numbered on the jacket.

Ex-SAS trooper Dan Shepherd is now a Detective Constable with London's Metropolitan Police seconded to a special hush-hush undercover unit tasked with missions otherwise impossible. In SOFT TARGET, the marks are a businessman and a crime lord's wife, each soliciting the murder of his partner and her husband respectively, where Dan plays killer-for-hire Tony Nelson, and a corrupt cop in the Met's elite armed response unit, which Dan joins as Stuart Marsden, that tackles armed pizza shop bandits, a gang of roving teenage thugs on the Tube, and, ultimately, Moslem suicide bombers. On his bedside table, Dan/Tony/Stu has a cell phone for each identity. Kathy Gift is the shrink assigned by Dan's boss to make sure that Shepherd, who recently lost his wife in a road accident, isn't suffering debilitating stress. Gee, why would one think that?

I gather that SOFT TARGET and HARD LANDING - the latter I have yet to read, you recall - serve as the character development bit in the evolution of author Stephen Leather's hero, whose ultimate mission in his fictional life is to foil Arab terrorists. In SOFT TARGET, there's fleeting reference to a mysterious Saudi, who travels the world on a British passport recruiting and arming suicide bombers, and who plays a major roll in COLD KILL.

I'm giving SOFT TARGET four stars not because it falls short as a thriller, but simply because it's not quite as riveting as COLD KILL, to which I gave five stars. (This reviewing gig is subjective and relative, after all.) I'm also somewhat impatient with the text space devoted to Dan's well-meaning but too often shoddy performance as a single Dad to his now motherless son, Liam. I gather Leather included this to show Dan as a regular bloke with a warm, fuzzy side to attract female readers, but the subplot never seems to go anywhere (and doesn't in COLD KILL, either). Less Liam and more Gift would've been more interesting.

Stephen tells me that there's to be a fourth Shepherd novel (in which, presumably, Dan's confrontation with Islamic nutters escalates). I'm actually looking forward to this book more than I am the first in the series because by that time the Shepherd character will have evolved to literary maturity.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars David Mould, Bangkok, May 8, 2006

By 

David Mould "Fungalguy" (Bangkok, Thailand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soft Target (A Dan Shepherd Mystery) (Paperback)

Having read this straight off the back of Hard Landing and being 100 or so pages in it feels exactly the same. Dan "Spider" Shepherd is assigned on once case and it morphs into another.
It's still a good read but I would recommend that you change authors in between or switch to another book outside the series