Pay Off (Stephen Leather Thrillers) by Stephen Leather (Epub)

Description

Why does a wealthy Scottish financier set up a drugs deal with the IRA? Jeopardise his career, endanger his family and lover by tangling with the East End underworld and a ruthless mercenary? The motive is simple: revenge for a cold-blooded act of murder.

His adversary is a dangerous gangland boss whose connections stretch from the Highlands to London and beyond. More than a match for a newcomer, especially when that newcomer’s plans contain a fatal flaw which will be discovered only when it is much too late . . .

User’s Reviews

Review ‘Stephen Leather should be nestling in your bookshelves alongside Frederick Forsyth and Jack Higgins’ — Daily Mail ‘This is an aggressively topical novel but a genuinely thrilling one, too.’ — Daily Telegraph on COLD KILL –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ The lesson of Stephen Leather’s PAY OFF is that revenge, rather than being a dish best eaten cold, is perhaps best not consumed at all.As I sat down to write this review, I realized that the author didn’t give a name to his novel’s hero. I’ve flipped back through the pages to ensure that I didn’t miss something; I apparently didn’t, so let’s call him “Mac” because he’s a Scotsman.Mac, a co-partner of Scottish Corporate Advisors, is a financier with a grudge. His father had managed an investment trust, Scottish Commercial Overseas Trust, until it was hijacked by Ronnie Laing and and Alan Kyle, the former a vicious drug dealer and the latter a specialist in hostile corporate acquisitions. During the SCOT takeover, Mac’s mother died in an auto accident, perhaps arranged by Laing as a warning to her husband. In any case, the day after losing control of his company, Mac’s despondent father blew his own brains out with a shotgun. Mac wants revenge, and plans an intricate sting that will frame Laing and Kyle for the theft of a large cocaine shipment from the IRA, an outfit you don’t want to annoy. To that end, Mac enlists the help of a high-end courtesan, a car thief, an ex-SAS mercenary, and a driver who once worked for Laing. But the best laid plans oft go awry, and by the time Mac is dumping bodies into a Highland loch, events have spun out of control. Don’t try this at home.This is only my third Leather thriller, with five more on the shelf to read. So far, the protagonists have been nominally law-abiding citizens forced by circumstance to the far side of the law. PAY OFF, at 240 paperbacked pages, is relatively short. While perhaps offering lo-carb plot and character development, this thriller met expectations for concept and action. However, as an otherwise honest Brit, Mac’s knowledge of criminal activities, which allows him to set up the scam, seemed unseemingly comprehensive. I mean, I wouldn’t know where to start. Perhaps Mac read too many crime novels.The book suggests one authored early in Leather’s writing career, and perhaps kept on the shelf until it was needed to meet a publisher’s deadline. However, it’s a good and quick read for a plane trip or day at the beach.

⭐ While I did enjoy Stephen Leather’s very English noir style, I think the whole time building up to the climax was drowned out by the very quick out come at the end. He spend a lot of effort planning and getting all the details right for revenge when it all started to fall into place it was all over. This is my second Leather book and I did enjoy his style and it hasn’t put me off reading more of his book, I just won’t be recommending this book as a starting point for this author.

⭐ I really enjoyed the book and it has a real twist in the tail.Less predictable than many books – worth while reading.

⭐ Stephen Leather always delivers. I only wish he could write faster !!! My favourite author bar none, he holds your attention from page one till the last word .

⭐ “Pay Off” is Stephen Leather’s first novel, published in 1988. I have not enjoyed an opportunity to read any of his later novels, but based on the promise of his first novel, am eager to do so.PO is beautifully written, but not particularly well crafted. Leather’s prose is brilliant and his allegories are witty. The most interesting aspects of the novel are his descriptions of investment banking (a subject one wouldn’t expect to be particularly interesting), financial frauds, characters and aspects of life in Scotland and London. If I could write prose half as well as he does, I could doubtlessly shed those detestable commas from my own Amazon sales rankings.However, his plot is a bit lame, to put it bluntly. A well-heeled gentleman hatches a sophomoric revenge plot that entails throwing a lot of money at the problem in order to keep his own hands clean. He gets in over his head and things go balls-up. He decides that if you want something done right, you need to take personal responsibility and do it yourself. However, to do so, he draws upon resources and alliances uniquely available to him and with outside help that borders on deus ex machina, concludes his quest. Consequently, the moral of the story is very weak. The protagonist makes choices that are unavailable to Everyman, so the consequences have little significance to anybody else. The trials he confronts are too easily overcome, usually by simply throwing money at them. The losses he suffers are relatively minor, even though the body count is considerably higher than ordinarily encountered in finance. The romantic interest and angle is more than a little contrived.The book is already older than many in its target audience. The human relations and emotions are still relevant, but some of the technical aspects feel a little dated, although they are minor elements in the story.It’s an easy read, actually a bit of a page-turner. However, it is the prose that engages the reader, rather than the plot or character development.

⭐ You can tell that this is one of his earlier books. It’s starts off quite well and gets the reader interested in why the main character is plotting such a devious plot. But the characters are a bit stereotyped (London gangsters and high class call girls etc) and the plot loses its way about half way through before racing through to a bit of a silly, long drawn out ending with some amateurish problem solving brought in to cover the rather large plot holes. (No details….no plot spoilers!). Not a bad tale though and it’s easy to see how Leather’s writing improves with his later creations.

⭐ An earlier book by Stephen Leather. Bought this book because I am up to date with his Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd books, which I really enjoy, so thought I would try this earlier book. However, not as enjoyable.

⭐ This was one of his earlier books before Spider Shepherd or the other spin off books but it was an enjoyable one and I can recommend it.

⭐ Another great read from this brilliant author. A hostile takeover by a corrupt company of a family business . The company killed any opposition to the takeover one by one. The son of the family business devises a plan to get rid of the killers of his family.

⭐ Another good book from Stephen leather been reading his books for years never disappoints and this one adds to the list

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