BLAST, BLITZ, PROMOS, REVEALS, & TOURS . . . : SPOTLIGHT w/EXCERPT - ACTION THRILLER

She's ex-MI5.

MI5 wants her dead.

Who can she trust?

False Connections
by Steve Sheppard
Genre: Thriller, Action

"Thriller addicts won't be disappointed"
"Steve Sheppard has created another great character in Mel Milano."

Three years ago, Mel Milano was an MI5 intelligence officer with a promising career. Then, during a routine protection and surveillance operation in Wales, things went drastically wrong and three people died, including Mel’s partner and fiancé, Liam Webster.

Drummed out of the service on trumped-up charges by MI5 Deputy Director, Sarah Brook, Mel lost her career, her self-respect, her confidence and her fiancé. Nothing made sense.

Three years on, she is rebuilding her life, working for a private security outfit.

But she’s never forgiven the way she was dumped by MI5. One day she’ll discover the truth about Brook and what was really going on.

Now, though, it’s clear that Mel’s not the only one still holding a grudge. Suddenly everybody seems to want her dead. But why?

On the run from MI5, is there anyone Mel can trust to help her uncover the past?

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‘Who exactly is Adam?’ I ask. ‘What’s this about, Sarah? And what the hell are you doing here? You, specifically. The Deputy Director doesn’t get her kitten heels dirty without reason. Timmy and Stu are big boys. They could have checked I’m safely tucked up by themselves. They didn’t need to bring their mum with them.’

Tim glowers but Sarah laughs. ‘You’ve still got a tongue on you, Mel. I’ve missed it. Old place hasn’t been the same since you left.’

‘Left?’ I say. ‘Pushed out, you mean. By you, as I recall.’ The memory of Liam’s death and the trumped-up charges come back to me from where I’ve left them lying dormant for three years. I was responsible for two deaths, one of them a Russian under UK protection, the other my partner. Failing to call for support as required. Lying to a superior officer, apparently. Insubordination. And, finally, assault. OK, that last one was true, although if I’d really assaulted Five’s security chief, he’d have collected a few bruises and not just a slightly askew tie.

‘Leave us, please, Tim,’ says Sarah. She’s stopped laughing. Tim looks annoyed; he may think he’s more important than he is. Nevertheless, he rises and goes into the kitchen. His socks are red. We wait while he noisily puts his shoes on and leaves the house. He doesn’t quite slam the door behind him. It’s not a very professional performance but I say nothing.

‘You were never pushed out, Mel,’ starts Sarah. I’m about to remonstrate but she holds up a hand. ‘You ask me why I’ve come all the way out here to the back of beyond. This is why. You’re not going to like this but please bear with me until I’ve finished.’ She pauses. ‘You’ve never left the service.’ I say nothing. She’s asked me not to interrupt so I don’t. ‘Linden Harper is MI5. Was MI5, sorry. His so-called independent bureau has in fact always been just one of our little webs. As you have certainly discovered during the last two years, you’ve benefitted from rather more elastic boundaries than you had working from Thames House. Harper’s isn’t the only such offshoot. It suits us occasionally to be able to employ less formal methods than governmental rules dictate. And the paperwork is less scrutinised. That’s no bad thing, especially for me. I have far too much paperwork these days.’ She looks briefly wistful, perhaps remembering the more active days of her youth.

‘I discovered Harper by myself,’ I say. ‘His was the fourth outfit I applied to. He wasn’t easy to find. And I’d taken a year off first, as I imagine you know.’

‘You may believe you found him but the truth is often more complicated than you think. Nevertheless, however it happened, you were given a job. The other three companies had turned you down, yes?’

‘Are they Five too then?’

‘How hard were they to find?’ Not hard at all was the answer. My expression undoubtedly indicated my acknowledgement of that. ‘They’re all genuine. Legitimate private contractors. One’s gone bust. Not unusual in the current economic climate. I’m afraid the word was put around that you were, how can I put this? Toxic. No one was going to employ you.’

‘Only Harper.’ Despite myself, I’m smiling. ‘Devious old bastard.’

‘Him or me?’

‘Both of you.’ I remind myself that one devious old bastard is now dead. ‘So what now?’

‘Old boss, new boss, I’m afraid, my dear,’ she says, spreading her arms wide. ‘Welcome home.’

‘And what if I say no.’

‘You won’t. And not because you’re still toxic and your intelligence career would be over if you did. You could get a job as a barmaid, I guess. You’re a good-looking woman, after all, Mel, but you wouldn’t get to do the things you like doing. Maybe on a raucous Friday night but it wouldn’t be the same.’

Steve Sheppard was born and grew up in Surrey before moving to Buckinghamshire and then to Oxfordshire, where he spent a quarter of a century living in an idiosyncratic village that was the affectionate inspiration for his fourth book, Lazytown. He now lives in Hampshire. He spent forty years starting to write books but not finishing them, until belatedly realising that the key is not to give up. The other thing he has since learned is that he should have become a celebrity before writing a book, as this would have made selling it much easier.

False Connections is Steve’s fifth book, but the first one written as a straight thriller and not primarily as a comedy, although it does contain humour. He hopes it will be the first of a series featuring feisty, funny but flawed ex-MI5 agent, Mel Milano. He also has three spy thrillers with laughs to his name, all published by Claret Press: A Very Important Teapot (2019), set in Australia, Bored to Death in the Baltics (2021), not set in Australia, and Poor Table Manners (2024), which takes place in Cape Town. These feature an initially fairly hapless hero, Dawson, and a considerably less hapless heroine, Lucy, together with varied supporting casts, most of whom are not who they claim to be. Steve’s fourth book is an out-and-out comedy-murder-mystery, Lazytown (2025).

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