Still Bleeding - A Jack Nightingale Short Story

Supernatural detective Jack Nightingale appears in five full-length novels - Nightfall, Nightmare, Midnight, Nightshade and Lastnight (to be published on January16).  But he also appears in the short story Still Bleeding.

In Still Bleeding Nightingale is called in to investigate a case of stigmata - a young girl is bleeding from her hands and feet and claims to have been visited by the Virgin Mary. But Nightingale realises that all is not as it seems and that the girl is in mortal danger.

You can buy Still Bleeding BY CLICKING HERE

Inspector Zhang and the Island of the Dead

I have just published the latest Inspector Zhang short story - Inspector Zhang and the Island of the Dead.   I had great fun writing it, though I have been struggling with the flu for the past couple of days.  Even dosed up on Lemsip Max Cold and Flu tablets I was still able to work!

It's set on the island of Sentosa, which I've visited several times. It's full of fun places, including the Universal Studios theme park.   It's another locked room mystery, where Inspector Zhang is called to a murder scene where a doctor has been stabbed in a locked room.

The Inspector Zhang books are great fun to write but they are a real struggle as locked room mysteries are notoriously difficult to write. I have two plots which I have been struggling with for more than a year. I have great set-ups for the story, and even have the titles and covers, but I just can't come up with solutions to the crimes!

You can buy Inspector Zhang and the Island of the Dead for the Kindle in the UK - HERE

And you can buy it on the Kindle in the US - HERE

Inspector Zhang is the third Stephen Leather continuing character. I also have Dan "Spider" Shepherd and Jack Nightingale. So far I have published seven Spider short stories and one Nightingale short story. I am currently working on another Nightingale short and have a cracker of an idea for another Spider short!  I'll keep you posted!

Rough Diamonds - the latest Spider Shepherd SAS short story

I have just put a new Spider Shepherd SAS short story on the Kindle and Smashwords. The story is Rough Diamonds, an action-packed tale drawn from Spider's SAS days in war-torn Sierra Leone.

I had great fun writing it - the SAS stories give me a chance to show where Spider came from and what made him the man he is. It also gives me a chance to introduce other characters who will reappear in later books.  There is a terrific MI6 operative - Jonathan Parker - in Rough Diamonds and he will be in the next Spider novel.

You can buy Rough Diamonds in the UK - HERE

And in the US - HERE

I'm going to take a short break from writing Spider Shepherd short stories as I have to start work on the new Spider Shepherd full length novel.  Though I am working on a Jack Nightingale short story as we speak!

Hostile Territory - the sixth Spider Shepherd short story

I have just published the sixth Spider Shepherd short story - Hostile Territory. It's set during Spider's days in the SAS when he was in Sierra Leone and is action-packed. I had great fun writing it and plan to do more set in the African country. I actually went to Sierra Leone on holiday many years ago, long before the civil wars. Great beaches, though the constant power cuts were annoying. Wasn't the friendliest of places, either. I only went because my holiday to to Sri Lanka was cancelled because the Tamil Tigers had gone on a killing spree!

You can buy Hostile Territory in the UK - HERE

And in the US - HERE

In Hostile Territory I have a very interesting MI6 character - Jonathan Parker - who I plan to have reappear inn the Spider Shepherd novels.

Warning Order - the new Spider Shepherd Short Story

I've just published the fifth Spider Shepherd SAS short story - Warning Order. It starts off on an ill-fated training exercise off the coast of Norway and ends in war-torn Sierra Leone. Action-packed, as always! I have another two, possibly three, Spider short stories in the pipeline!

You can buy it in the UK - HERE

And in the US - HERE

Natural Selection - A New Spider Shepherd Story

I have just published a new Spider Shepherd story - Natural Selection - which explains how the SAS trooper earned his nickname.  It's set during the Jungle Training part of SAS Selection, where applicants to the Regiment are tested to their limits. When Shepherd went through Selection, the jungle section took place in Belize.

You can buy it in the US Kindle store BY CLICKING HERE

And in the UK Kindle store BY CLICKING HERE

I'm working on three more Spider Shepherd SAS short stories which I shall be publishing over the next few weeks.

The Threesome

The Threesome is one of my favourite short stories. It's set in Thailand, a country I know well, and is about a young man who has always fantasised about having a threesome with his wife and another girl.  He loves his wife - the only girl that he has ever been with - but the fantasy just won't go away.  While on holiday in the Land of Smiles he gets the opportunity to make his fantasy come true - but it changes his life in a way that he never expected.

You can buy it in the UK BY CLICKING HERE

And in the US BY CLICKING HERE

Cursed - A Jack Nightingale short story

My publisher Hodder and Stoughton has spent a lot of time building Stephen Leather as a brand - and most of that work has been around two of my characters - undercover cop Dan "Spider" Shepherd and supernatural detective Jack Nightingale.

As part of Hodder's promotional work I wrote a Jack Nightingale short story for them.  Called Cursed, it's about Nightingale trying to help a police officer who has been cursed by a gypsy.

I persuaded Hodder to give the book away for free, and as of today it is - you can snap up a copy HERE

I enjoyed writing the Jack Nightingale short story so much that I am now planning more!

My New Thailand Short Story

My latest short story, The Ladyboy Lover, is set in Thailand, a country I am very familiar with.  I have written several short stories set in the Land of Smiles.  At one point I called the series 'erotic' but in fact there is very little in the way of sex in the tales.  Now I tend to call them 'Stephen Leather short stories'.

The Ladyboy Lover is about a guy who falls in love with a ladyboy - or katoey as they're called in Thailand.  All goes well until he decides that what he needs to make the perfect family is a baby.

Thriller writer Jeremy Duns was good enough to tweet about the story to his thousands of followers.

'I love Stephen Leather,' said Jeremy Duns. 'He rocks. Ladyboys are best.'

It seems that Jeremy Duns is a fan of my self-published short stories and refers to them as 'erotic masterpieces' in another tweet!

You can buy The Ladyboy Lover for the Kindle in the UK BY CLICKING HERE

And you can buy it in the US BY CLICKING HERE

You can read more about my books at www.stephenleatherbooks.com

Three FREE Spider Shepherd short stories - for the next five days only!

I have put my three Spider Shepherd SAS short stories into a boxed set and am offering them FREE for the  next five days!

The three short stories deal with Spider's time in Afghanistan, before he signed up as an undercover cop.  They're a fun read and a good introduction to the character.

You can download your free copy for the Kindle in the UK - BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK

Or get a free copy in the US - BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK

Three FREE Short Stories

Today my publisher Hodder and Stoughton are releasing three FREE short stories by Stephen Leather.

The anthology is called Spider's Web and two of the stories feature undercover cop Dan "Spider" Shepherd. The third is a stand-alone short story about a retired serial killer.

Also included is the first chapter of the new Spider novel - True Colours - which will be published next month.

You can download a free copy of Spider's Web for the Kindle in the UK BY CLICKING HERE

And in the US of A BY CLICKING HERE

Free Short Stories!

For the next four days I'm giving away six free short stories on the Kindle.  They are part of my Asian Heat boxed set which is now free under the Kindle Select program.

The stories are The Threesome, where a husband makes a disastrous decision to have a threesome with his wife; The Alphabet Game, where a young man gets involved in a strange sexual game; and The Pregnant Wife, where a man discovers the love of his life as he sleeps with a succession of available girls.

Also included as a bonus are three very short stories set in Thailand.

So six short stories - free until June 2.

You can get them in the UK - BY CLICKING HERE

And in the US - BY CLICKING HERE

Another Free Short Story

I'm a big fan of giving away free stuff as there's no doubt that it does pull in new readers, and the best stuff to give away free is a short story. That way a reader can tell pretty quickly if they're interested or not.

One of the first short stories I gave away is called Banging Bill's Wife.  It's a story of a Singapore-based stockbroker who gets more than he bargains for when he answers and advert for a strange sexual encounter.

It was meant to be an erotic story but it didn't really work out that way and actually ended up more as a comedy.  I wasn't sure whether or not I should publish as a Stephen Leather book but decided that I'd rather do that than use a pen name.

You can get it FREE in the UK -  HERE

And you can get it FREE in the US - HERE

I've written several other short stories set in Asia, including The Alphabet Game, The Pregnant Wife and The Threesome.  They give me a chance to explore life in South East Asia, and while I set out to write erotic stories the thriller writer in me always takes over and they end up having a twist in the tail.

I do enjoy writing short stores and find them a way of relaxing between novels.  One of my Spider Shepherd novels would be about 130,000 words and that's a lot of work.  A short story of 10,000 words might only take a few days to write, and allows me to get into the head of characters who wouldn't normally pop up in a Spider Shepherd novel.

My First Short Story

It's generally accepted in publishing circles that short stories don't sell.  The simple fact is that a collection of short stories from an author, no matter how famous or respected. never sell as well as a novel.  That's as true of Stephen King as it is of an up-and-coming writer.

I always felt that the arrival of eReaders would change that.  The problem in the past has been that a reader has never been able to buy a single short story, only a collection.  But for the first time the eReader gives the buying public the opportunity of buying stories one at a time.

In the winter of 2010 and spring of 2011 I had a huge amount of success self-publishing eBooks.  I am the only self-published author to ever have the top three places on the Amazon UK Kindle list. And my book The Basement was number one in the US and the UK Kindle charts.

I realised that the eReader gave buyers the chance to buy single stories at a reasonably low price. On Amazon that's 99 cents.  And it's also possible to give away eBooks, for free.

So I self-published a story about a Chinese detective in Singapore with a fondness for locked room mysteries.  I now give away Inspector Zhang Gets His Wish for free.

You can get it in the UK  HERE

And in the US  HERE