Customer Reviews
Hard Landing (Dan Sheperd Mysteries) - By: Robin Bacon, 06 Nov 2008 
The Dan Shepherd series are rivetting & hard to put down. 'Spider' is an interesting & complex character but reassuringly tough - a bit like a UK version of Jack Reacher from the Lee Child books, but not such a loner. I have enjoyed everyone of the Dan Shepherd books & strongly recommend them - the fact that I have bought them all is testament to Stephen Leather being a great author
Spider Does Porridge - By: Paul Hanratty, 25 Aug 2008 I have just read Hard Landing for the 2nd time with a gap of about 3 years. I have a talent for developing amnesia when it comes to reading & therefore I could really only remember the basic plotline. I was once again captivated by the tension the author createsin this thriller & found myself holding my breath as the action hotted up. I think the introduction of Spider's family & his interaction with his son humanises a character I have previously described as "superhuman" (my review of Dead Men).This was our first meeting with Spider & to date he has not disappointed.
Great intro to Spider - By: Clive, 06 Oct 2007 This is the first of Leathers books to feature Dan Shepherd, & it is a cracker! Carpenter is a drug dealer on remandin a high security prison but managing to kill off witneses so his case won't go to trial. Carpenter has a huge span of control bothin & out of the nick. Enter Spider, undercover to make sure Carpenter gets convicted. This is a great & tense game of chess with Carpenter having a strong network & Spider always under the risk of being found as a copin jail. Great story, but could have been edited down 100 pages, nevertheless.
Standard Prison story with a cracking end - By: D. Newstead, 22 Mar 2007 Leather has written some amazing books & this for anyone else would be a good book but not quite as amazing as his early ones. The story starts off with Dan Shepherd being arrested & putin prison to get information on a really nasty drug runner who has killed off most of anyone who can finger him. The scenes are pretty graphic & the action as far as it can getin a prison is pretty hard & fast. The ending makes a huge extra point to the book.
Not bad.
New literary Tough Guy hits the ground running - By: Joseph Haschka, 14 Feb 2007 
HARD LANDING was the firstin the Stephen Leather's series of thrillers starring Dan "Spider" Shepherd, an ex-SAS trooper now assigned to an elite Metropolitan police unit tabbed for deep undercover operations when the usual enforcement methods can't nab the bad guys. Dan's nickname came to be while on an SAS survival training mission & he won a bet on who could eat the most disgusting thing. One normally doesn't see "tarantula" on the menu evenin the greasiest curry house.
HARD LANDING was followed by SOFT TARGET & COLD KILL, all three of which I've unintentionally readin reverse order. I'd recommend reading the first book first since, if nothing else, the series is a character development exercise for the protagonist.
Here, Spider is tossed into one of Her Majesty's maximum security prisons after establishing his cover as an armed desperado on an airport warehouse hold-up gone bad. Dan's mission is to nail big-time drug trafficker Gerald Carpenter, currentlyin the same lock-up awaiting trial. Carpenter is somehow communicating with the outside & masterminding the quashing of evidence & killing of witnesses that would otherwise convict him. Fearing Gerald will ultimately go free, Shepherd's job is to identify the leak & thus ensure Carpenter's conviction.
Spider's job prevents him from having a normal home life with his wife Sue & son Liam, a fact that causes the inevitable friction with the former & neglect of the latter & which is exacerbated by a tragedy that occurs while Dan is behind bars. I previously mentionedin my review of SOFT TARGET (dated 11/4/06 & entitled "A whopping cell phone bill, no doubt") that the author perhaps dwelled too much on Spider's spotty relationship with his son, which caused me to knock off a star from that otherwise splendid tale. With Shepherd, I'm looking for hard-boiled action not agonized soul-searching. (My other favorite fictional Tough Guy, Lee Child's Jack Reacher, never ever moons about engagingin self-castigating guilt trips.) I gave COLD KILL five stars (dated 6/29 06 & entitled "How hardball do we play it?") because it maximized the action & minimized the hand-wringing, & I'm giving HARD LANDING a full allocation of points for the same reason.
Until commencing with the Dan Shepherd series, Leather had pretty much eschewed an ongoing hero beyond a couple of books. With Spider, Stephen has struck gold, & I'm eagerly awaiting the fourth installment, HOT BLOOD.
