Stephen Leather’s latest book, was a real scorcher and I could not put it down until the final paragraph. He has written many books apart from this series but there is a freshness about his writing which makes it truly exceptional and I was gripped until the final page. A Navy SEAL has gone rogue, selling his skills to the highest bidder as a professional assassin. Ryan French no longer cares who he kills so long as the price is right. His former bosses want him taken down, but they're not prepared to get their hands dirty so they need a Brit to do the job. SAS trooper Matt "Lastman" Standing is a lethal killing machine with experience in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Plus he's worked with Ryan French in the past. It's not a mission he wants, but Standing made a bad choice in his past and it has come back to haunt him. Now he's hunting French in the lawless Wild West forests of Humboldt County, where the US produces most of its legal - and illegal - cannabis. But French isn't the only predator in the wilderness - there are Mexican cartels, Russian Mafia and Hungarian gangsters - and Standing has to overcome them all to get to his target. Stephen Leather is from a journalistic background and meticulously researches the background to all his books and for this one he spent time in California with a guided tour of the whole process of bringing cannabis to market. He intended returning to continue his research but the Covid disease travel restrictions prevented this. It is very reassuring, reading facts and background details in his stories and knowing that they must be authentic because he has such a good reputation. The quality of his research is undiminished regardless of the quantity of books he writes. I thought this was a cracking good thriller, the best that I have ever read by Stephen Leather and his journalistic keen attention to detail kept me gripped to the edge of my seat right up to the last page. Since he has started writing four books a year (incredibly I think, this is his seventy fourth) I was sure the quality would fall off, but this book kept me guessing (wrongly!) right up to the last page. As this is in a series for regular readers, part of the enjoyment comes from catching up on the escapades of the regular characters in a similar way one does to a TV series, but Leather is aware that a reader may buy his book on impulse and the story is fully explained for such occasional readers also. I found the book extremely readable and would certainly recommend it. (Review copy provided by the Publisher in exchange for a fair review)

Ryan French is an assassin for hire. If the price is right he’ll take out anyone you want. He’s an ex US navy seal gone rogue. He is an embarrassment to his country and they want him put down, permanently. Matt Standing is a SAS soldier with quite a reputation and a former friend of Ryan’s, so when he gets an ultimatum to take French out or go to prison for a crime he did and thought no one knew about, he is left with no choice. Standing flies to Humbolt County, a lawless town in the US, a place with cannabis farms run by Russian mobsters and Mexican cartels, a town where strangers are not welcome. Matt will have to be at his best to find and kill his quarry whilst doing his best to avoid unwanted attention. No one writes this type of thriller better than Stephen Leather. It’s faced-paced, hard hitting and totally enthralling. The plot is superb and the main character is fantastic and Leather’s writing is highly addictive. Another outstanding book by a brilliant writer and one I highly recommend.

I am a huge fan of Mr Leather's Dan "Spider" Shepherd series and although I haven't read the first in this series (how the heck did I miss that!!!!), I was pretty sure I was in for a treat and I wasn't wrong. Matt "Lastman" Standing is being blackmailed to do a job for "The Pool", a shady organisation; his mission is to hunt down and assassinate Ryan French, an ex-Navy Seal who hires himself out to the highest bidder. This is not going to be an easy mission and Matt finds himself in the depths of the wilderness in western America knee deep in cannabis and up to his neck in trouble within a very short period of time. With excellent and strong characters, an immersive plot and full of action, this is a great story. I also learnt a heck of a lot about cannabis farming - not that it'll do me much good but it was interesting nonetheless. I very much look forward to reading more in this series and my thanks must go to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for this ARC. Having enjoyed many of this authors books in his Spider Shepherd series I was pleased to be approved to read the second book featuring Matt Standing. Did I enjoy this book - yes, although I felt the first book was better. I thought the book started off well and Matt is sent to find and kill someone he once knew. I felt the book was overly long though, especially in the first half - and at times the writing was overly descriptive and I found myself losing concentration, interest in the story and skimmed through some parts of the story. The writing and action did pick up though in the latter part of the book and it raced to a satisfying and final conclusion. I would read the next book in this series to see how the main character develops, and overall I thought this was an ok read, just one that didn’t wow me or have me desperate to keep turning the pages to find out what was coming next.