Sheepdogs

A Novel

By: Elliot Ackerman

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 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, which Skwerl convinces a reluctant Cheese to accept, is to repossess a private jet stranded on a remote African airfield. Their fee: a commission on the jet’s $5 million value. But nothing about the job adds 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.

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 and the players around them navigate an increasingly tangled set of loyalties. They join forces with an eccentric bomb technician turned off-the-grid survivalist, a lapsed Amish adventurer, a used car dealer elected to Congress, even a case officer known as the White Russian. Globe-trotting and binge-worthy, full of heart and humor, Sheepdogs is a uniquely perceptive, wild ride through the underbelly of modern war and intelligence.

©2025 Elliot Ackerman (P)2025 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“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, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Twice

“The brilliant Sheepdogs by Elliot Ackerman shatters paradigms and moves the genre forward with two unique and quirky heroes named Skwerl and Cheese who will endear themselves to you from the first page to the last. Do yourself a favor and dive into the action with these post war-on-terror repo men as they take you on a thrill ride you will not soon forget. Move Sheepdogs to the top of your list!”—Jack Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Red Sky Mourning and Targeted Beirut

“Raw and real and beautifully told, Sheepdogs isn’t just a page-turner, it’s a mind-bender. Elliot Ackerman takes the reader into the CIA’s most secret space—the paramilitary ‘special activities’ of its Ground Branch. It’s a helluva read, a heist chase melded with a spy novel—think Ocean’s Eleven meets James Bond. And it builds toward one of the best surprise endings I’ve read in a long while. Read it before it gets classified!”—David Ignatius, columnist at The Washington Post and author of Phantom Orbit