Stephen Leather Books

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Stephen Leather is a British Thriller author who is the brains behind BBC’s, Murder in Mind Series, The Knock and London’s burning. Currently, he is rated among the best sellers on Amazon Kindle and the second best-selling UK author. Leather was born in the year 1956 in Manchester, England. He grew up Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Sales and attended the Manchester Grammar School. He later on attended Bath University, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry. After obtaining his degree, Leather became a biochemist for ICI. Apart from being a biochemist, Leather has also worked as a baker, quarry worker, a barman and petrol pump attendant. Leather, later on, became a journalist and worked for various newspapers such as the Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, South China Morning Post and the Glasgow Herald.

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The author Stephen Leather was born in Manchester, England, in October 1956. He studied biochemistry at Bath University, where he graduated in 1978. Upon completion of his degree, Leather put it to good use, working for Imperical Chemical Industries (ICI) as a biochemist. However, a complete change of course took place when he went to work as a journalist, working in the United Kingdom, as well as in Hong Kong for the South China Morning Post. It was during this time that Stephen Leather’s love for writing really took off. While he had tried his hand at writing for several years prior, after a decade as a journalist, Leather finally turned to writing full-time, and released his first book, Pay Off, in 1988.

Pay Off, published by Harper Collins, tells the story of a young man in Glasgow who looks to exact revenge on the men who killed his father. Leather spent several years working for the Glasgow Herald, so drew on his knowledge of the city to set Pay Off there. Leather drew on his knowledge of Hong Kong to write his second book, The Fireman, which has a tabloid journalist as the main protagonist.

As well as writing several stand-alone novels, Stephen Leather has also written several series, with his most popular perhaps being Dan Shepherd, also known as Spider, who is an undercover policeman, with a history of being an operative in the SAS. As well as Shepherd, Leather’s other main creation has been Jack Nightingale, who is a private detective.

However, Leather gained notoriety and a level of fame when Amazon opened the Kindle store. Sensing an opportunity, Leather set the cost of all his e-books to the lowest amount possible, and the general public, loving a bargain, catapulted several of his books into the top ten. Leather also self-promoted a lot of his work on forums throughout the internet, again ensuring his work stayed in the top ten lists for as long as possible. To date, he is one of the best selling e-book authors of all-time, and it’s all down to him capitalising on Amazon’s new venture.

Leather’s love for writing began when he was still in college. However, during those years, Leather only managed to pen down a few pages. Leather became a professional writer after he worked as a journalist and gained all the necessary experience. Leather’s very first novel was written while he was still working for the Daily Mirror. Harper Collins published the novel, Pay-Off from the slush pile. Pay-Off. Pay-Off is a novel about a merchant banker who decided to seek revenge against two gangsters who had murdered his father. The novel is set in the country of Scotland, a region where the author worked for more than five years for the Glasgow Herald. The author while working for the South China Morning Post penned his second novel, The Fireman down. With that said, Leather’s novels include themes of imprisonment, crime, terrorism, and military service.

The book’s settings are typical, the Far East and London. Stephen Leather writes his series in different genres. Dan Spider Shepherd is one of the main characters in one of his series. Dan is a former Special Air Service who later on became an undercover police officer. Jack Nightingale is another series by the author. Unlike the first series, the Jack Nightingale is a supernatural detective series which was published by Hodder and Stoughton and the books in the series include Midnight, Nightfall, Last Night and Night Shade. Apart from penning down novels, Leather has also written several screenplays such as The Knock, London’s Burning, and Murder in Mind series.

In the year 2010, Stephen Leather became one of the most successful writers’s in Amazon’s Kindle market. In the same year, Amazon opened an eBook market. As expected, Leather was convinced that people who will purchase eBooks would look for bargains. Thus, Leather priced his novels at the lowest price for independent authors. By doing this, Leather was able to get his book to the top ten best sellers list. In the year 2011, The Basement, Hard Landing, and the Basement occupied the top slots on the UK Kindle best-sellers list. On the same year, Leather became the second UK-based bestselling author after Lee Child who topped the list.

Stephen Leather Awards

Stephen Leather is yet to receive any major literary award.

Stephen Leather Books into Movies

The critically acclaimed Sky Television adapted the Bombmaker and The Stretch. Bombmaker was released in the year 2001 and was directed by Graham Theakston and starred Dervla Kirwan, Ciara Lyons, and Mark Womack. Bombmaker is unknown individuals kidnap a movie about a former Bombmaker who is forced to return to her craft after her daughter.

Best Stephen Leather Books

Hard Landing: The first installment in the Dan Shepherd book series, which features the protagonist Dan Shepherd. In this installment, Dan is used to putting his life at risk. He used to work for the SAS until his spouse convinced him to get out. Now, Dan works as an undercover detective for a leading police squad. The book begins as an exceedingly powerful drug lord begins to kill witnesses who had watched him commit various crimes. Thus, he is forced to go to an undercover prison, a place where any wrong move will mean assured death. As he continues his investigation, Dan eventually discovers that the man the police are looking for is exceedingly dangerous, and the police may have underrated him.

The man is exceedingly powerful that he can execute criminal offenses out of the prison. The Drug baron is known as Gerry Carpenter. Once he was arrested, the Drug squad began celebrating their victory since they had just arrested one of the most wanted men in the country. However, the celebrations are ended prematurely since Carpenter begins to conduct a series of attacks so that he can be able to regain his freedom. Police officers begin disappearing, while witnesses are threatened and the evidences are destroyed. With that said, this is an excellent read that will definitely leave you intrigued.

Stephen Leather FAQs

Q: What television programmes has Stephen Leather written for?

A: Amongst other programmes, Stephen has written for London’s Burning and Murder In Mind.

Q: When was Stephen Leather born?

A: The author Stephen Leather was born on October 25th, 1956.

When Does The Next Stephen Leather book come out?

Stephen Leather doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is First Strike and was released on June, 30th 2024. It is the newest book in the Spider Shepherd Series.

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