Stephen Leather's Books

Recommended Reading

Three of Stephen Leather’s books to try:

Soft Target: Dan Shepherd, an ex SAS trooper turned undercover cop posing as a contract killer and a bent armed response policeman. He lives a complex life. (Review)

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Lastnight: features Jack Nightingale as a hardboiled chain-smoking private detective come wizard… If that is what you are looking for, then there really is no substitute. (Notes)

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The Eight Curious Cases of Inspector Zhang: Inspector Zhang clears up eight locked room murders. Which is more than Singapore has of either murders or locked rooms. (Notes)

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Biography

Stephen Leather was born in Manchester in 1956 and went to study biochemistry at the University of Bath. Whilst working in a bar to subsidise his grant, he fell into a conversation with a drunk journalist. A career in journalism sounded far more enticing than that of a scientist, so, after graduating, he started work for the Daily Mail. Journalism taught him how to research, gather facts, and write a story, and it was whilst he was at the Mirror that he wrote his first book — Pay Off.

Style

Stephen Leather is a prolific writer of fast-moving, well-researched thrillers with intertwined plot lines. As well as numerous stand-alone novels, Leather has written series about three distinct characters:

Sam “Spider” Shepherd is an ex-SAS trooper turned undercover policeman.
Inspector Zhang of the Singapore Police solves locked room mysteries with the less capable Sergeant Lee.
Jack Nightingale: a hostage negotiator for the Met turned private detective. Nightingale’s discovery that his father was a devil worshiper leads him into the world of the occult.

Controversy

Despite Leather’s prolific output, his most remarkable talent may be self-promotion:

“As soon as my book is out I’m on Facebook and Twitter several times a day talking about it. I’ll go on to several forums, the well-known forums, and post there under my name and under various other names and various other characters. You build up this whole network of characters who talk about your books and sometimes have conversations with yourself.” (The Guardian)

In 2012, forty-nine other British authors issued a group statement in which they unreservedly condemned the use of sockpuppets or paid reviews.

I imagine Mr Leather was so distraught he had to take solace in the sales figures of his books.