Sheepdogs
A Novel
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4.1 • 81 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“You know Slow Horses—now meet the Sheepdogs.” —The Sunday Times (London)
Two Misfits. One Mission. Zero Back-Up. • When a high-stakes heist goes wrong, an ex-CIA operative and a special operations pilot find themselves in the middle of a game of espionage and survival as they navigate a treacherous web of deception and shifting loyalties in a globe-spanning, action-packed thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of 2034.
"Move Sheepdogs to the top of your list!”—Jack Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“A thriller and comedy in one, it’s a wild ride.”—Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author
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 Ground Branch, the CIA’s elite paramilitary wing. He was fired after a raid went bad in Afghanistan. Big Cheese Aziz, a legendary pilot—his country’s Maverick—is equally hard up. The fall of Kabul has left him grounded, working the nightshift at a gas station.
Skwerl recruits Cheese into an anonymous network of so-called sheepdogs, a band of Robin Hoods who operate in the shadowy space between the sheep and the wolves, protecting prey from predator and earning a buck along the way.
Their mission: repossess a private jet stranded on a remote African airfield. Their fee: a commission on the jet’s $5 million value. But nothing about this job is adding up. Their contact has gone 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.
Globe-trotting and page-turning, full of heart and humor, Sheepdogs is an adventure through the under-belly of modern war and intelligence
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this fast-paced thriller, two veterans join forces for a big score, until everything goes sideways. Aziz, the Big Cheese, and Jay, aka Skwerl, live modest lives after the unceremonious ends of their military careers. With bills piling up and futures to consider, they embark on a jet repossession mission that upsets some very dangerous people. A vet himself, author Elliot Ackerman knows the military drill inside and out, using his knowledge to create a believable, high-stakes world. We loved watching Skwerl and Cheese flee in a purloined plane, with each wacky character they encounter adding an amusing wrinkle to their misadventures. Both of these resilient veterans will need every tool in their kit to keep themselves and their loved ones safe in a world of spies and mercenaries.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
International intrigue, classic heist tropes, and gonzo humor collide in this bruising page-turner from Ackerman (2054). Jay Manning, better known as "Skwerl," was a member of an elite CIA unit before one of his missions went FUBAR and he was fired. His old friend Aziz "Big Cheese" Iqbal is an Afghan pilot renowned for his ability to fly any kind of plane. Adrift without a war to fight, the two take to operating as mercenaries-for-hire. As the novel opens, Skwerl has persuaded Cheese to travel to Africa and "repossess" a luxury jet on behalf of an anonymous client. Things go south fast when they walk into an ambush, barely escaping in Cheese's plane to a hangar in rural Pennsylvania. They regroup and—with the help of a memorable supporting cast including Skwerl's dominatrix wife Sinead, an excommunicated Amish mechanic named Ephraim, and a former soldier nicknamed "Just Shane" who's gone off the grid in Colorado—try to determine who might have set them up. When Cheese's pregnant wife is kidnapped, things get more urgent. Ackerman, a former Marine, holds a funhouse mirror up to classic grizzled-soldier narratives while grounding the loopy proceedings with real stakes for his characters. The result is a riotous entertainment.
Customer Reviews
Excellent and unique spin on the espionage and paramilitary world
It’s always great to read a piece of fiction written by someone in the proverbial “know” who doesn’t let their personal political bias seep into the story (I see you Jack Carr). I really hope Elliot picks up the story and options this to HBO!
Fun story!
Dark humor meets the shadow wars of our time.
“War is a racket,” Smedley Butler warned. Ackerman picks up that thread and runs it through a caper that is equal parts spy craft, moral hangover, and deadpan comedy. Skwerl, an ex–paramilitary officer with a busted career, teams up with “Big Cheese” Aziz, an Afghan pilot working nights at a gas station. Their job sounds simple. Repossess a luxury jet from a remote airfield and ferry it to Marseille for a fat fee. Nothing about it is simple.
What begins as a heist becomes a tour through America’s off-the-books wars. The shadow network that hires them, the Office culture of aliases and nicknames, and the four names every operator carries show how identities blur when the mission never really ends. As Skwerl and Cheese move from Kampala to the Riviera, they meet handlers who lie, friends who disappear, and enemies who sometimes look like clients. A dominatrix girlfriend, a grizzly, and a cache of Marie Antoinette plates keep the tone sharp and surprisingly funny, but the joke is never cheap. The laughs sit next to grief, debt, and loyalty.
Ackerman’s dialogue is tight, the set pieces hum, and the details feel lived in. The book asks what happens to the “indig” forces and veterans once the headlines move on. It also pokes at the sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs story. Who is protecting whom, and at what cost. By the time payroll, proxy armies, and a missing jet collide, the question is not how to get out clean. It is whether anyone in this world ever does.
Fast, clever, and uncomfortably honest, Sheepdogs is a caper with a conscience. It entertains, then it lingers.
-SemperRead
Sheepdogs
Great book. A fun read.