Spider Shepherd Series

Russian troops are preparing to cross the border into Belarus, threatening its independence. The only thing facing them are an armed partisan group but they are poorly trained and will be no match for the Russians. The British Government wants an independent Belarus as a buffer against Russian expansion - so Shepherd is despatched with a crack SAS team to help the partisans. And as the Russians prepare to attack Belarus, assassins are at work, carrying out an audacious series of killings. All the victims are supporters of Boris Yeltsin, the first President of Russia. Someone wants President Yeltsin dead. And it's up to Shepherd and his team to ensure that doesn't happen.

This collection of stories goes back to Dan “Spider” Shepherd’s SAS days, and the missions that shaped him. From his training in the welsh hills and the jungles of Belize, through to his early missions in Sierra Leone and the Middle East, these nine stories chart his rise through the SAS, and his involvement with the elite Sabre Squadron. Along with his comrades Jimbo, McKay and Geordie, Spider puts his life on the line on active duty…and sows the seeds of his future career. We even discover how he earned his nickname…

The daughter of an American politician has been kidnapped by white supremacists in Namibia. The kidnappers are demanding their own homeland in the heart of Africa and want to use the girl as leverage. The American Government can’t agree to the demands but are reluctant to mount a high profile rescue mission. They need a deniable operation, and who better than the SAS to do the dirty work? Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd is tasked with putting together a team to parachute into the African badlands to rescue the hostage. Getting to the girl is easy enough, it’s when they try to get her out that the trouble begins and the bullets start to fly.

Dan Shepherd stared at the canvas ceiling above his bed as the dawn light slowly strengthened. His tent was pitched on the edge of the airfield outside Sarajevo in Bosnia. 1995, and Dan 'Spider' Shepherd is on active service as a paratrooper in war-torn Sarajevo. Frustrated by the army, when he is tasked with accompanying an SAS patrol in the area, he realises that the SAS is where he belongs.

“We’re professional soldiers,” said Shepherd. “We fight for queen and country, there’s a hell of a difference between us and mercenaries.” Spider Shepherd and the rest of his men are called upon to stop a bunch of South African mercenaries who have disobeyed orders and plundered diamond fields in Sierra Leone from reaching the Liberian border. Some quick thinking and a lot of ammunition will ensure that Shepherd and the Pilgrims can achieve their mission, and obtain something to help the traumatised people of the country…

Dan 'Spider' Shepherd was standing on the flight deck of an RAF Hercules C-130, leaning on the back of the pilot's seat and anxiously scanning the horizon ahead of them in the first faint light of dawn.c/p> Spider Shepherd and his patrol mates are heading back to Cyprus when an urgent situation arises, and they are pressed into action. A sensitive operation planned by HQ, they are sent into the Arabian desert to take on a group of dangerous terrorists.

Spider Shepherd squatted on his heels outside his tent, drinking his first brew of the day from a battered mug as he watch the wind stirring dust devils from the dirt floor of the compound. When an inexperienced officer sends out innocent paratroopers to be betrayed by a surrendered Taliban sniper, Spider Shepherd is the man chosen to clean up the mess. With his old friends Jock and Geordie to help, along with SAS hopeful Lex, can they take their revenge? Or are they just putting themselves in the kill zone?

“Sorry boys, my hands are tied. The order comes from Special Force HQ and I can’t countermand it. So I’m giving you a Warning Order for an imminent active service operation. You’ve got 40 minutes to call your wives and girlfriends, and sort your kit.” After the tragic loss of one of his patrol on an ill-advised training exercise in the Arctic Circle, Spider Shepherd and his comrades are angry at their incompetent commanding officer. Although on rest, they are placed under a Warning Order – effectively gagging them after a whitewash inquiry. Ordered to repeat the earlier fatal training, they’re then sent into Sierra Leone.

For eight hours Spider Shepherd had been lying up in a sand dune overlooking the six-lane highway that slashed through the desert like a knife. It was a moonless night, the blackness dotted with so many stars that looking up made his head spin. Fresh from a sniper mission in the Middle East, Spider Shepherd is sent to Afghanistan on a new assignment. Teamed up with former trainer Spud and Lex, a young Para, he receives intel that the “man the Americans seek” is hiding in the White Mountains. So they head into the mountains to scout the area and prepare for attack…

“So if you can’t find a helicopter anywhere in Sierra Leone for a lift-out, you’d better order up four body bags instead.” Spider Shepherd and his SAS mates are stranded, low on rations and ammunition, waiting for a ride to Freetown before they are overrun by rebels. Upon their return to the capital, they are pressed into service by MI-6, tasked with destroying a rebel arms dump. But to do this, they must wade through infested swamps and face rebel soldiers. Many of the soldiers are boys – they won’t hesitate to kill Shepherd, but is he able to pull the trigger on them?

“It isn’t a part-time job, it’s a full time, unrelenting commitment and to become one of the inner elite you must expect to make sacrifices at the expense of family, friends and your career.” Dan Shepherd is on a Jungle Training course in Belize as part of his SAS Selection. Along with Liam, Geordie and Jimbo, he is chosen for further training to see if they make the cut for the Sabre Squadron Troop. Taken out on real operation patrol, the men run into trouble with Guatemalan troops in the disputed province. Forced to escape into the jungle, the men are tested to their limits, but their reward may be great…

The Bosun explained that E & E was so important to the Regiment that every badged soldier and officer must do an E & E every couple of years…It was the ultimate test: you were good or you were caught. The final hurdle in the SAS selection process – the E & E exercise. The aim is to evade capture, and to resist interrogation when finally caught. So when Spider Shepherd is captured, he doesn’t immediately think anything is wrong. But when the beatings escalate, and he hears an Irish accent after warnings of Provisional IRA activity in the area, he knows that his life is on the line and he needs to make his escape.

Dan “Spider” Shepherd was sipping his first coffee of the day as the sweat from his morning run slowly dried on his skin. Kept on standby in Cyprus, Shepherd and his patrol mates are getting fed up with the lack of action. When they’re offered the opportunity to spend some time in Nepal, they jump at the chance. Whilst there, they meet an SAS living legend, and are roped into a mission.

Not all terrorists are driven by religion or politics. Dan "Spider" Shepherd and his SAS team are on the trail of a terrorist whose motives are much more personal. Sabit Kusen wants revenge and doesn’t care how many innocents he kills along the way. Shepherd and his team hunt their quarry around the world – from Athens to Paris to Zurich to Singapore and on to Sydney, but the elusive Kusen is always one step ahead of them. Can Shepherd catch Sabit Kusen before he carries out his most audacious attack? And does he have what it takes to pull the trigger to end the fanatic’s reign of terror?

Dan “Spider” Shepherd shifted position slightly, trying to ease the pressure from the rocks beneath him and the ammo belt pressing into his chest. He lay prone, scanning the terrain through his sniperscope. After the Taliban unleash an attack on a military checkpoint, Spider Shepherd suspects foul play. He was too late to stop the attack, but he’s determined to find out how they knew where to strike. With the help of a local boy named Karim, he decides to investigate. But when Karim’s father is killed by the Taliban it’s up to Shepherd to help Karim exact his revenge.

"So the men you will train as my bodyguards will be selected not on the basis of their physical fitness but purely on their loyalty to me. The men outside are all Bedu, of my own tribe. Their loyalty to me is absolute and unquestioning.” Spider Shepherd and his team are sent to the Middle East to train tribesmen as bodyguards for the ruling sheikh. He is slowly trying to modernise, but his rule is being threatened by his cousin, whose father was deposed in a bloodless coup. When the cousin begins to cause trouble, backed by Chechan mercenaries, Spider and his team need to take a more active role in events....

Who was Dan "Spider" Shepherd before he signed up as an undercover cop and began working for MI5? The Sandpit rewinds with an action-packed rollercoaster to his days in the SAS.... Dan Shepherd and his SAS team are sent into the badlands of Afghanistan to train the rebels who are battling Taliban fanatics. But what starts as a training mission in The Sandpit rapidly turns into a life or death struggle with Shepherd and his team very much in the firing line. Soon they are caught up in an international intrigue that threatens the stability of the whole Middle East.