Stephen Leather (born 25 October 1956) is a British thriller author whose works are published by Hodder & Stoughton.

Leather wrote his fourth novel, The Chinaman, while working as night news editor on the business desk of The Times in London.

Having been turned away by the authorities, the man, a highly decorated Special Forces fighter in the Vietnam War, travels to Ireland and hunts down the people responsible.

[6] Early in 2011, Leather's books The Basement, Hard Landing, and the vampire novella Once Bitten occupied the top three places in the UK Kindle bestseller list, a feat matched only by Stieg Larsson with his The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy.

[21][22] In 2002, Leather's book Tango One was nominated for the inaugural CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, awarded by the Crime Writers' Association.

[25] His book Cold Kill was nominated for Best Novel in 2007 by International Thriller Writers Inc.[26] In 2011, Leather sold over 500,000 eBooks[citation needed] and was voted by The Bookseller magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the UK publishing world.

[27] Cohen quoted Leather's response to a question, as a panelist, at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, which was recorded for BBC Radio 4:[28] "As soon as my book is out I'm on Facebook and Twitter several times a day talking about it.

"[27]Leather's comment was widely reported,[29][30][31][32][33] and, on 3 September 2012, forty nine other British authors issued a group statement in which they "unreservedly condemn" the use of sockpuppets, or paid reviews.