The writing itself is top-notch. Nightfall is precisely plotted, with tension, action, and humor in all the right places. The characters are engaging and the action is intense. I found the mystery elements of the story to be its strongest parts, which comes as no surprise, since mystery thrillers are Leather’s bread and butter. This book would be a great gateway into fantasy for someone who’s into mystery or crime novels.

Before reading Nightfall, I'd heard of Stephen Leather but hadn't read any of his books. I'm glad that this was my first one, because I really enjoyed it. a b c "Kindle gives thriller writer a plot for success – at 71p a shot". The Guardian . Retrieved 13 August 2012.

How to read the David Raker Books in Order?

ITW Thriller Award nominees and winners". Thriller Writers. Archived from the original on 21 February 2012 . Retrieved 13 August 2012. While reading the sample, I thought that this is my kind of book. It had a dark, twisted, jaded protagonist with some great sarcastic humor. I immediately bought the book. It took some time, but I finally got around to reading it. You Were Gone– Three days after Christmas, a woman walks into a police station. She has no phone and no ID, just a piece of paper with the name of David Raker on it. She tells officers that Raker is her husband. When he turns up at the station, the woman looks exactly like his wife. She knows all about their marriage, their history, and even private conversations the two of them had. There’s just one problem: Raker’s wife has been dead for eight years.

Flood, Alison. "Stephen Leather accused of cyberbullying by fellow thriller writers". The Guardian . Retrieved 13 January 2016. Confessions of a Bangkok Private Eye is a fictionalized account of Bangkok Private Eye Warren Olson’s experiences working there. Olson is fluent in the Thai and Khmer languages and walked the seedy side of the city where other P.I.’s did not. His second novel, The Fireman, was written while he was working as the business editor of the South China Morning Post. [9] [10] 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.CONTENT WARNING: suicide, rape, pedophilia, drug use, misogyny, religion, loss of loved ones, car accidents. There were additional issues with the book; the author had problems keeping the timeline straight, he placed the 10th of the month as the Friday between the 13th and 27th.

The e-book debate - threat or opportunity?". Front Row. BBC Radio 4. 29 August 2012 . Retrieved 3 November 2013. (Quote, in response to audience question, at around 26.53) However, Nightfall's constant stream of dramatic events ended up being a double-edged sword. While it was hard for me to really get bored when big things kept happening every other chapter, I also got a little burned out on those "big" things about halfway through the book. It's kind of like the first time you go on a roller coaster...it's exciting and thrilling and loads of fun (to me, at least), but when you ride that same roller coaster for the tenth time, it's just not quite as good as it was the first time. You know where all of the drops and the sharp turns are, and there's not a lot left to surprise you, which is half the fun of the ride in the first place. This is kind of the way I felt about Nightfall by the end of the book. Kerridge, Jake (6 August 2012). "A crime author, at the festival, with a kindle". The Telegraph. London . Retrieved 3 November 2013.His first novel, Pay Off, was written while he was still employed at The Daily Mirror. [8] 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.