Soft Target (The Spider Shepherd Thrillers Book 2) by Stephen Leather (MOBI)

Description

he second book in the bestselling Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd series.

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.

User’s Reviews

Review Stephen Leather is old-fashioned thriller writer and his books have that indefinable quality that keeps you turning the page.―The Mail on SundayA master of the thriller genre.―Irish TimesHigh-adrenaline plotting.―Sunday Express –This text refers to the mass_market 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:

⭐ I don’t care for this book, the second in the series I’ve read. The main character is just so damn wish-washy about everything — seriously, he allows himself to be talked into doing everything for everyone, with just a bit of reluctance on his part. Ugh.I’ll read the third book in the series, but if the main character doesn’t find and keep a backbone, adios…

⭐ 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.

⭐ After reading 1st Spider book, I couldn’t wait to read number 2. While the book is a page turner, which you can’t put down, it has some flaws: as other reviewers put in in more details, there are too many interlocking plots, and what would be the “main” plot (about villain kerr) is surprisingly killed off (as the villain) in a very abrupt manner and you are left very disappointed. This “main” plot is almost fully “replaced” by this other plot about suicidal bombers which comes a bit out of the blue. There are also too many loose ends not properly tied off. However, the good exceeds the bad in my view, as it is very well written, with some unputdownable moments , as I have to admit I couldn’t stop reading the book.

⭐ Enjoyed this one lots. It would definitely make a good film. Getting used to the Spider profile by now. Really didn’t want that bent copper to get caught because of his child’s situation so the end they chose for him was very clever. Win win all round.

⭐ Great series — the author adds humor to the detective novel. Read the first in the series for background information about Spider Shepherd. The setting is London and the surrounding area – this adds to the enjoyment of the novel. Jack is a widower, a top-notch cop, and a father – frantically he has his hands full solving crime.NOTE: Stephen Leather also wrote another mystery/supernatural series with Jack Nightengale as his protagonist. This, too is a great series.

⭐ Got it as a gift for my dad, who reads a book a week. I like Stephen Leather’s other books, the Jack Nightingale series, so I figured this would be good too. (My dad likes Cussler, Flynn, spy-type books.) I figured with 11 books in the series (when I bought it anyway) I could get him set for awhile. I bought the first three books to get him started. Right on cue, 3 weeks later he bought 4 more.

⭐ Love this series of Spider Shepard and will be reading them all

⭐ superior story

⭐ Stephen Leather does it again. Another terrific book featuring ex-SAS, current undercover operative, Spyder Shepherd. So long as he keeps writing this kind of quality book I’ll keep buying them.

⭐ I enjoy these spider series of Stephen leather, however I found soft target a bit slow in parts.but still a good read and Leather is building up shepherds character more and more.

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