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Dan 'Spider' Shepherd specializes in undercover work, and his SAS background is perfect for the roles he's now asked to play in his job with SOCA, the Serious Organised Crimes Agency. But there are times when he's very unimpressed with the lack of joined-up thinking exhibited by various government agencies, and this is one of those times. Lack of communication has just forced him to kill to save the life of another undercover operative. He also doesn't particularly like the office job he ends up in, snooping on his colleagues in an attempt to find out who is passing information to the Somali gang leader Will Waal, known as 'Crazy Boy', who operates from Ealing, where he runs piracy operations in Somalia and brings back the profits. When Somali pirates seize a yacht off the coast of Africa and demand a ransom for the crew, Spider's bosses are forced to take a more active hand in matters as one of the kidnapped crew members has a connection in high places. Spider is given a new identity as a human resources consultant employed by the shipping company, a role that doesn't make him popular with the crew. After a few days, Spider is convinced he's wasting his time. The ship is simply too large to be a likely target for the pirates. Or so everyone thinks. This is only the second of the Spider Shepherd books that I've read, but it certainly won't be the last. Both books stand very easily on their own two feet, helped by Leather's narrative device of having Spider sit down with the psychologist employed by his bosses to assess his continued mental fitness for the demanding work he does. This chat brings up enough information about Spider's background to be useful without tripping over a fine line into tedium. Leather displays an equally sure hand with other details in the narrative, contriving to make the inevitable info dumps both easy to read and entertaining in a way that rarely slows the action. The plot trots along at a fair pace, much the way Spider himself does on his training runs, carrying his Bergen full of bricks and wearing his old army boots. Spider is a convincing action hero, competent without being overly macho. When he's not working, he's a single father, struggling to bring up his teenage son in the face of long and often unexplained absences, helped by his Slovenian au pair, Katra. There are times when the shadow of Spider's past comes back to haunt him in unexpected and violent ways and Leather expertly weaves two plot strands together, which contrived to leave me wondering how far Leather was prepared to go in turning Spider's life upside down. The action is vividly drawn with enough technical detail to lend veracity, but never enough to swamp the narrative. Leather writes a very accomplished thriller indeed, and I have every intention of collecting his back catalogue of Spider Shepherd books. I'll also be eagerly awaiting the next one. § Linda Wilson is a writer, and retired solicitor, with an interest in archaeology and cave art, who now divides her time between England and France.
Reviewed by Linda Wilson, August 2011
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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