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Book Review: by Lang Reid
Dead Men
 Stephen
Leather is a prolific writer, with around 20 thrillers to his credit. He is
also a frequent visitor to Thailand, and Pattaya in particular, where he can
be found tapping away on his laptop ensconced in a booth at Jameson’s Irish
Pub. To produce as many books as he has, it would require that degree of
dedication. If you have a word with him, or point a gun at him, you might
even get into his next one!
His latest book Dead Men (ISBN 978-0-340-92171-5, Hodder and Stoughton,
2008) is another of the Dan Shepherd novels (Hard Landing, Soft Target, Cold
Kill and Hot Blood), all of which feature the undercover policeman ‘Spider’
Shepherd and his rather believable exploits. When I say ‘believable’ I mean
it. Dan Shepherd is a literary character who bleeds. Like you and me. Dan
Shepherd also has moral values, despite his profession (probably unlike you
and me)!
In this latest novel, the subtitle is “When justice fails, revenge is the
only option” and this is hammered through the book from page eight where the
wife of an Irish policeman threatens revenge for the cold-blooded killing of
her husband, to the final few pages when a Mercedes is hit by a remote
controlled missile and the owner incinerated. Another revenge killing. In
the book Stephen Leather manages to combine Northern Ireland and its revenge
killers and the Middle East with another set of revenge killers and bring
these disparate groups together in a believable plot, all revolving around
his central action figure of Spider Shepherd.
Stephen Leather is primarily a story teller. His familiarity with weapons is
such that you can actually learn something as you read. I did not know that
a Glock had no safety catch. Did you? His description of a knife fight is as
accurate as it is gory. “She realized the blade was embedded in her
shoulder. She screamed as he pulled it out and the serrated edge ripped
through skin and muscle. Tears filled her eyes. She didn’t want to die like
this, cut to pieces in her own home.”
What happens when a bullet hits a skull is dealt with in minutiae. Lynn
slipped his gun back into its holster. A thick treacly halo of blood had
formed around Carter’s head. He felt no sympathy for the dead man and no
remorse for what he had done. He was at war, and Carter had been the enemy.
This book is not one for the faint hearted.
It is a thriller, and you can put the word “action” in front of that. The
phrase “unable to put down” is hackneyed these days, but this book Dead Men
is definitely one of those. You do not want to put it down, you do not want
to turn the pages too quickly in case you miss some vital nuance, I was
hooked. You will be too.
The review copy was privately sourced (thank you Kim) as my local Bookazine
had no stock, but it is worthwhile finding a copy. Try Megabooks through the
internet. This book is definitely worth the effort.
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