Stephen Leather's Bio

Stephen Leather: Author with flair for suspense, thrill and action

Stephen Leather is a British thriller author whose works are published by Hodder & Stoughton. He has also written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock, and the BBC's Murder in Mind series.

He is one of the top selling Amazon Kindle authors and the second best selling UK author worldwide on Kindle in 2011. Leather is known for thriller books such as the Dan Shepherd Mystery, Mike Cramer and Nightingale Series.

In 2002, Leather's book Tango One was nominated for the inaugural CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, awarded by the Crime Writers' Association. His book Hard Landing was nominated for the award in 2004 while Cold Kill was nominated for Best Novel in 2007 by International Thriller Writers Inc.

In 2011, Leather sold over 500,000 eBooks and was voted by The Bookseller magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the UK.

Leather was born in Manchester on October 25, 1956. He grew up in Sale and Chorlton-cum-Hardy, and attended Manchester Grammar School. He attended Bath University, where he obtained a BSc in Biochemistry in 1978.

He began his writing career as a journalist, working for newspapers such the Glasgow Herald, Daily Mirror, The Times, Daily Mail, and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.

His first novel, Pay Off, was written while he was still employed at The Daily Mirror. It was published from the "slush pile" at HarperCollins. The novel is a thriller about a merchant banker who takes revenge on two gangsters who killed his father. The book is set in Scotland, where Leather worked for five years on The Glasgow Herald as a business writer.

His second novel, The Fireman, was written while he was working as the business editor of the South China Morning Post. In The Fireman, a British tabloid journalist travels to Hong Kong to discover why his sister committed suicide. Both novels, and his third, Hungry Ghost, were published by HarperCollins.

Leather wrote his fourth novel, The Chinaman, while working as night news editor on the business desk of The Times in London. At the time, the Provisional Irish Republican Army's bombing campaign was at its height, and in The Chinaman, a Sino-Vietnamese man loses his family in an attack loosely based on the bombing of the Harrods department store in London. Having been turned away by the authorities, the man, a highly decorated Special Forces fighter in the Vietnam War, travels to Ireland and hunts down the people responsible. The book was used as the basis for the 2017 thriller The Foreigner.

A productive and consistent writer, Leather manages to churn out one or more books every year since his debut with Pay Off.
 

Below are some of Leather's defining works:

  • The Fireman (St. Martin's Press), Hardcover (1990), Paperback (1996), Audio Book (2011), and eBook (2008)

  • Hungry Ghost (HarperCollins), Hardcover (1991), Paperback (2008), Audio Book (2008), and eBook (2008)

  • The Chinaman: Mike Cramer #1 (Pocket Books), Hardcover (1992), Paperback (1992), Audio Book (2007), and eBook (2008). Also published as The Foreigner (2017)

  • The Double Tap: Mike Cramer #3 (Hodder & Stoughton) , Hardcover (1996), Paperback (1997), and Audio Book (2006)

  • The Vets (Pocket Books), Hardcover (1993), Paperback (1994), and eBook (2004)

  • The Long Shot: Mike Cramer #2 (Hodder & Stoughton), eBook (2009)

  • The Birthday Girl (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (1995), Paperback (2006), Audio Book (2007), and eBook

  • The Solitary Man (Ulverscroft), Hardcover (2004), Paperback (1997), and Audio Book (2010)

  • The Tunnel Rats (Ulverscroft), Hardcover (2004), Paperback (2006), Audio Book (2009), and eBook (2009)

  • The Bombmaker (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (1999), Paperback (2005), Audio Book (2003), and eBook (2009)

  • The Stretch (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (2000), Paperback (2001), Audio Book (2001), and eBook (2009)

  • Tango One (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (2002), Paperback (2006), Audio Book (2004), and eBook (2009)

  • The Eyewitness (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (2003), Paperback (2003), Audio Book (2004), and eBook (2008)

  • Hard Landing: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #1 (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover, Paperback, Audio Book, and eBook

  • Private Dancer (Three Elephants), Paperback and eBook

  • Soft Target: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #2 (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (2005), Paperback (2005), Audio Book (2005), and eBook (2008)

  • Confessions of a Bangkok Private Eye (Monsoon Books), With Warren Olson

  • Cold Kill: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #3 (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover, Paperback, Audio Book, and eBook

  • Hot Blood: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #4 (Hodder & Stoughton), Paperback and eBook

  • Dead Men: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #5 (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (2008), Paperback (2008), Audio Book (2008), and eBook (2008)

  • Live Fire: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #6 (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (2009), Paperback (2010), Audio Book (2009), and eBook (2009)

  • Dreamer's Cat (Three Elephants), eBook

  • The Basement (Amazon Encore), Paperback (2011), Audio Book (2012), and eBook (2011)

  • Rough Justice: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #7 (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (2010), Paperback (2010), Audio Book (2010), and eBook (2010)

  • Nightfall: Jack Nightingale #1 (Isis Large Print), Hardcover, Paperback, Audio Book, and eBook (2012)

  • Once Bitten (Amazon Encore), Paperback (2011), Audio Book (2012), and eBook (2011)

  • Bangkok Bob and The Missing Mormon (Monsoon Books), Paperback (2011) and eBook (2010)

  • Fair Game: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #8 (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (2012), Paperback (2012), Audio Book (2011), and eBook (2012)

  • Midnight: Jack Nightingale #2 (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (2011), Paperback (2012), Audio Book (2012), and eBook (2012)

  • False Friends: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #9 (Hodder & Stoughton) 2011   

  • Nightmare: Jack Nightingale #3 (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (2012), Paperback (2012), Audio Book (2012), and eBook (2012)

  • True Colours: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #10 (Hodder & Stoughton), 2013   

  • Nightshade: Jack Nightingale #4 (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (2013), Paperback (2013), Audio Book (2013), and eBook (2013)

  • White Lies: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #11 (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (2014), and eBook (2014)

  • Last Night: Jack Nightingale #5 (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (2014), and eBook (2014)

  • San Francisco Night: Jack Nightingale #6 (Three Elephants), Hardcover (2015), and eBook (2014)

  • Black Ops: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #12 (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (2015), and eBook (2015)

  • New York Night: Jack Nightingale #7 (Three Elephants),Hardcover (2015), and eBook (2015)

  • First Response (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (2016), and eBook (2016)

  • Takedown (Hodder & Stoughton), Hardcover (2017), and eBook (2017)

  • Dark Forces: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #13 (Hodder & Stoughton),Hardcover (2016), and eBook (2016)

  • The Sandpit: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd: SAS #1 (CreateSpace), 2016

  • Light Touch: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #14 (Hodder & Stoughton), 2017   

  • The Shout (Hodder & Stoughton), 2018   

  • Last Man Standing (Hodder & Stoughton), 2018   

  • Tall Order: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #15 (Hodder & Stoughton), 2018   

  • Moving Targets: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd: SAS #2 (CreateSpace), 2018   

  • Tennessee Night: Jack Nightingale #8 (Independently published), Paperback (2018), and eBook (2018)

  • The Bag Carrier (Independently published), 2019   

  • Rogue Warrior, Novella, 2019

  • Plausible Deniability (Independently published), 2019

  • Short Range: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #16 (Hodder & Stoughton), 2019   

  • The Runner (Hodder & Stoughton), 2020   

  • Slow Burn: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #17 (Hodder & Stoughton), 2020   

  • Fast Track: Dan 'Spider' Shepherd #18 (Hodder & Stoughton), 2021