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Soft Target (2005)

Soft Target (2005)

Book Info

Genre
Series
Rating
4.11 of 5 Votes: 3
Your rating
ISBN
0340834099 (ISBN13: 9780340834091)
Language
English
Publisher
hodder and stoughton

About book Soft Target (2005)

I'm now working my way through Stephen Leather's series featuring undercover cop and former SAS team member Dan Shepherd, and this is the second (there are eight in all so far, I believe). In this one, he takes on two personas as he tries to juggle assignments to ferret out suspected "dirty" cops and a hitman who's been hired to kill a very mean mobster by the bad guy's wife. Thrown in the mix, so to speak, is a plot by Muslim extremists to put human bombs in the London subway.It does get a tad confusing trying to keep up with three different identities - I'm including that of Shepherd himself, who's trying to balance life as a too-often gone father (none too successfully) and grieving widower. I'd say the same about Shepherd trying to keep straight the three cell phones he uses - one for each identity - except that it's probably easy for him since he's got a photographic memory. On the plus side, Leather doesn't try to make Shepherd too much of a super-hero physically, although he may go a bit overboard on the mental vulnerability. Is the loss of his wife and constant disappointment of the son he rarely sees affecting his ability to do his job, which always requires full-on focus? Enter a new character, a psychologist to whom Shepherd is required to report for a check-up of his mental state. It's probably no accident that she's a real looker, so readers may get a sense that there's more to come here on both the professional and personal front. Meantime, Shepherd finally hires a live-in an au pair to oversee son Liam while he's absent, and guess what? She's also an intelligent and attractive young woman. Putting two and two together, I'm sniffing the possibility of a dilemma of choosing between his son's nanny and the shrink somewhere down the line (but that's just a guess, folks).Resolving the three job-related cases to which he's assigned is pretty much a given, of course, and how that happens (and how the cases are intertwined) makes for good reading.

While in the first book of the series the plot was pretty much focused on ONE undercover operation of Spider in this one we have at least THREE parallel stories. One: Dan having to deal with his 'real life' and the aftermath of his wife's death and how delicate his relationship with his eight-year-old son has become : he feels guilty, he wants to be a present Dad, his actions are being closely followed by the Unit's psychologist, he takes his son back to their house (where his wife had lived) and the hiring an au pair to look after his son while he's working in several operations, etc...Two: He's Tony Nelson the hitman, who's hired to kill Sewel by his business partner, Hendrickson, who recommends Nelson's services to Angie Kerr, wife of an abusive psychopathic gangster/mobster..And..Three: Stu Marsden, undercover agent to investigate 'good cops gone bad'.In this fast paced action thriller all these stories end up intertwined and parallel, setting off a sort of 'chain reaction' that threatens to expose Dan's real identity, ruining his operation and putting his son's life at risk.It would have been a 5/5 for me, and although I admire Stephen Leather style and creativity, some 'solutions' seemed a bit either too unrealistic or simplistic for my taste.TOTALLY ABSOLUTELY RECOMMEND it!

Do You like book Soft Target (2005)?

The 2nd book in the Dan Shepherd series by the underrated Stephen Leather. After I started reading this series last week I have become completely absorbed in it and can't put the books down. I finished the 2nd book this evening and immediately started reading the next one. At this rate I will have finished all 10 books by the end of the month. I had the same feeling when I first started reading the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child and I am hoping that like that series it continues to improve as the characters develop further. So close to a 5 star rating as was the last one.
—Gary

This was the first Stephen Leather book that I've read. I have to say, if this book is anything to go by he's a very good author. The characters were full and three dimensional, and he was very good at getting you (at least in my case) to connect to them as real people.The plot was very good and and very well told, realistic and believable. Its the sort of book I just didn't want to put down, very engrossing. Full of action, with the technical knowledge to back it up. The little details in every scene made the story very real indeed, and as a good book should do I felt I was there with Shepherd every step of the way. I felt his adrenaline, and his pain.The only criticism I have really is that he doesn't use chapters, very odd.The book though, absolutely amazing and thoroughly recommended.
—Dave

I need to start by explaining that I am exactly 11 books and 9 years behind in the Spider Shepherd series so I figured it was high time I started to catch up. As soon as I started I only got as far as 5 chapters in and it was game over, nothing in my house was getting cleaned, no dinner cooked and no TV watched. I realised that I have been seriously depriving myself by not reading these and ploughed on and finished this in just 2 days (well a girl has to work and pay bills after all).I realised that pretty early on Spider is a bloody fantastic character. He has a somewhat fractured history and with the loss of his wife he is desperately trying to balance his work life with taking care of his son. Having been so long since I read the first book it didn’t matter, as there was plenty of background info on Spider so that anybody can pick this book up and read it without having read book 1. Spider is former SAS and now working as an undercover copper. There are two main threads to the story, one involving Spider working undercover posing as a contract killer. The second thread involves him infiltrating an elite armed police unit to try and work out who is ripping off the local drug dealers. Both threads of the story had plenty of action and it seems like Spider doesn’t even have time to breathe. It was incredibly fast paced and I found myself absorbing everything and just wishing for the best outcome. In addition to the two cases Spider works on, there is the added sub-plot of a group of terrorists planning to bomb some major places in London.It’s been such a long time since reading book 1, I was astounded that I waited this long to read the second! Having finished this book in 2 sittings, I’m chomping at the bit to get to book 3. I actually brought books 2, 3 and 4 in one Kindle package for less than £7, which I thought was a great deal. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. This was a truly exciting and utterly compelling read.
—Best Crime Books & More

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