Stephen Leather The author

The plan is so complex, the target so well protected, that the three snipers have to rehearse the killing in the seclusion of the Arizona desert.

How could the assassins have known that a small aircraft would fly over their rehearsal, or that a small boy would be in the cockpit operating his father's camcorder? All they did know was that to protect their mission the plane had to be brought down.

Cole Howard of the FBI knows he has only days to prevent the audacious assassination. But he doesn't know who the target is. Or where the crack marksmen will strike.

Former SAS sergeant Mike Cramer is also on the trail, infiltrating the Irish community in New York as he tracks down Mary Hennessy, the ruthless killer who tore his life apart. But he soon finds himself caught up in a far more dangerous conspiracy - Mary Hennessy and Carlos the Jackal are masterminding the assassination.

Unless Cramer and Howard agree to co-operate, the world will witness the most spectacular terrorist coup of all time. The countdown has begun.

Stephen Leather writes: The Long Shot is set mainly on the East Coast of the United States, as I was spending a lot of time there. The ending takes place in a baseball stadium in Baltimore, close to where my apartment was.

In many ways, The Long Shot is a sequel to The Chinaman, though they are totally different stories. Two characters in The Long Shot, Mary Hennessy and Mike Cramer, both appear in The Chinaman, though if you blink you'll miss Mike "Joker" Cramer.

Reviews:
"The Long Shot consolidates Leather's position in the top rank of thriller writers. An ingenious plot, plenty of action and solid, believable characters - wrapped up in taut snappy prose that grabs your attention by the throat...A top notch thriller which whips the reader along at breakneck speed." - Yorkshire Post