Sheepdogs - Elliot Ackerman

''Skwerl, Cheese, Dickhead Mike, the White Russian—these characters are totally addictive. I couldn’t put Sheepdogs down. A thriller and comedy in one, it’s a wild ride'' HARLAN COBEN

A sly, funny, action-packed thriller introducing an instantly iconic spy duo, from the author of New York Times bestseller 2034

Skwerl and Cheese are down on their luck. Skwerl, who is resourceful like a squirrel (Marines win battles, not spelling bees), used to work for the CIA’s elite paramilitary wing. He was unceremoniously fired after a raid went bad in Afghanistan. ‘Big Cheese’ Aziz, a legendary pilot – his nation’s Maverick – is equally hard up. So Skwerl recruits Cheese into an anonymous network of so-called sheepdogs, who operate in the shadowy moral grey zone between predator and prey.

Their first mission? To repossess a private jet stranded on a remote Ugandan airfield. Their fee: a commission on the jet’s $5 million value. But nothing about the job seems to add up. Their contact goes missing. Their handler is as mysterious as the real source of the money. And when the women in their lives get involved – one pregnant wife and one dominatrix – the stakes skyrocket overnight.

From the jungles of Kampala to a glamorous hotel in Marseille, from a veteran-run pizzeria in Kyiv to a Panera in northern Virginia, Skwerl and Cheese must navigate an increasingly tangled set of loyalties where no one and nothing is what it seems. Globe-trotting and page-turning, full of heart and humour, Sheepdogs is a wild ride through the underbelly of modern war and intelligence.