The Book Depository Fair Game by Stephen Leather
2976 ratings
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Price: £9.99
Brand: The Book Depository
Description: Fair Game : Paperback : Hodder & Stoughton : 9780340924983 : 0340924985 : 03 Apr 2012 : The eighth Dan 'Spider' Shepherd thriller: up-to-the-minute action adventure with unbeatable pace. The Book Depository Fair Game by Stephen Leather - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: The Book Depository
Product ID: 9780340924983
MPN: 0340924985
GTIN: 9780340924983
Author: Bob Hurley
Rating: 5
Review: Great Spider Shepard novel, Somali pirate's plan, an audacious capture. Spider is focused elsewhere when it is planned. However, he is soon heavily involved in righting the wrongs and resolving the issues in his normal, cool, calm, and calculated manner. Come the culmination, has he crossed the line? I leave it to you to decide. Great thriller.
Author: Mr S Glover
Rating: 3
Review: The 8th Dan 'Spider Shepherd' thriller sets the bar for willing suspension of disbelief very high. We have Al Queda, pirates, IRA, hostages, ghosts, revenge and the not inconsiderbale mentions of rucksacks and bricks. Dan and handler Charlie have moved on from SOCA and are in MI5 but the format is otherwise the same as the rest. Dan goes undercover, hunts baddies and does ok. In this instalment he get lots of baddies, more than ever and the violence and general superman status of Dan reaches new heights. For the most part I loved it and powered through the read in just a few days. Leather is accomplished at setting a fast pace and adding considerable action styled flesh to the bones of a plot. Dan is as likeable and roguish as ever, Charlie is sexy in that school mstress way and Liam and Katra are what they have been for the last few books. Bit part players to make sure we remember Dan is a good guy. There is a lot of well researched detail and action is well delivered and has a hint more gore than usual. I really liked it and felt it was another solid addition to the series. The failings come in that there is a lot of repetition - If we hear about why he uses the rucksack and boots when running one more time then it will be 100 to many. Likewise Leather needs to seriously re-think the Liam Katra element as they have no real value and the additional IRA element of this story was overkill and would have played out better as a stand alone novel. Especially given the revenge versus good guy versus bad guy line drawing that plays out in this book. In addition you have to ask is Shepherd the only man allowed to fire a gun in the UK? He doesn't have to be the absolute hero in every situation... he could share it around! There is a lot of detail and while it isn't excessive it could have been trimmed down or at least made to feel a little less like a lesson on 'How to..' The Shepherd books are good entertainment, well written a fit the action thriller genere very well. No they aren't going to win literary prizes but they are fun. There are some that seem to have an excessively personal opinion on the writer and have allowed that restrict objectivity, equally I won't defend the author's occassional misguided comebacks not every bad review is born of trolling malice and those that are, are very obvious by comparison to genuine ones. I figure there are two good Shepheard stories to go - I for one am looking forward to them and seing where Spider will end up at the end of it.
