Marked For Death by Matt Hilton #Guestpost

I am delighted to share with you very entertaining guest post by Matt Hilton author of Marked For Death...I do hope you enjoy it as much as me

In Days Of Old

In days of old when knights were bold and Kindle wasn’t invented

A carrier bag was all it took so my boredom was prevented.

OK, that was a weird little ditty to get me started, but if you stick with me I’ll explain.

I’m a full-time author these days, with twelve novels in my Joe Hunter series (plus a bunch of short stories), four novels in my Tess Grey and Nicolas ‘Po’ Villere thriller series, all traditionally published, plus a handful of indie published genre books and a number of stories in anthologies etc. Writing is my job, but it’s also my passion. But equally so is my love of reading.

I’ve never fully taken to e-readers. I still prefer holding a real book, turning the pages, consciously aware of my progression from front to back. I like the feel and weight of a book, and the smell. I think that because books were introduced to me early in my childhood that they have become a part of my sensory make up, and that’s something I just can’t get from an e-reader. Also, skimming through on-line bookshops doesn’t have the same appeal to me as rooting around in a bricks and mortar shop: much of my youth was spent digging around in bookshops, unearthing treasures, and doing so on the Internet simply doesn’t have the same feeling of excitement.

So where does the carrier bag come in, you may ask. Well, some of my earliest encounters with the books that would go on to inspire me to write were dug from the bottom of a plastic carrier bag. Back when I was a child in the 1970’s, I grew up on a council estate, in a poor but hard-working household, alongside four brothers and my parents. Because every penny counted there wasn’t any to spare on the comforts that other kids might have taken for granted. That isn’t to say that we were neglected (quite the opposite), only that feeding and clothing a bunch of energetic boys took precedence over purchasing new things we didn’t need. I don’t recall my parents purchasing any new books back then, and yet the house was always full of them. A weekly task of mine was to go and fetch more.

My father used to summon me, hand me a carrier bag stuffed with books he’d finished reading, with an instruction to go round to ‘Billy’s’, or ‘George’s’ or…you can insert a name of any of his circle of friends…to swap for those they’d finished reading. I was a bashful child and always hated my journey to whoever’s house I’d been sent, and yet the journey home always made up for my embarrassment. You see, I was always the first to see what hidden treasures had been secreted in my carrier bag. On the return trip I’d always find a quite corner, or a bush to hide behind, where I’d sneak out the books and inspect them, earmarking those I hoped to read. In hindsight, most of those books were probably out of my age range, but by then I was reading well beyond my years. On one such trip to restock the Hilton lending library I came across Alistair MacLean’s Ice Station Zebra. Unless memory fails me, that was the first ‘adult’ thriller I ever read, and to say that it enthused me is an understatement. I then began avidly looking for more in a similar vein, found the men’s action adventures and heroic fantasy books of the day my personal favourites, and of course, being an aspiring author by then – even if I hadn’t realised it myself – I began writing my own little pastiches of the characters and scenarios I came to love.

So yeah, I guess I owe my career to a tatty old carrier bag – or rather the treasures I discovered within.

BIO

Matt Hilton is the author of the high-octane Joe Hunter thriller series, and the Tess Grey and Po Villere thrillers. His first book, ‘Dead Men’s Dust’, was shortlisted for the International Thriller Writers’ Debut Book of 2009 Award, and was a Sunday Times bestseller, also being named as a ‘thriller of the year 2009’ by The Daily Telegraph. Dead Men’s Dust was also a top ten Kindle bestseller in 2013 and 2016.

Matt has published novels in the supernatural/horror genre, namely ‘Preternatural’, ‘Dominion’, ‘Darkest Hour’ and ‘The Shadows Call’.

His next Joe Hunter novel, Marked For Death, will be published 17th July 2017, and his next Tess and Po novel, Worst Fear, on 29th September 2017.

www.matthiltonbooks.com website

https://twitter.com/MHiltonauthor  @MHiltonauthor Twitter

www.facebook.com/MattHiltonAuthor Facebook

www.facebook.com/MattHiltonBooks official author page at Facebook

About the book:

Joe Hunter has been Marked for Death in his most explosive outing to date

It should be a routine job. Joe Hunter and his associates are hired to provide security for an elite event in Miami. Wear a tux, stay professional, job done.

But things go wrong.

Hunter is drawn into what appears to be a domestic altercation. When he crosses the mysterious Mikhail however, he soon finds something altogether more sinister…

Before long this chance encounter has serious repercussions for Hunter and his friends. Good people are being killed. On the run, in the line of fire, the clock is ticking.

From the bars of Miami Beach to car chases and superyacht grenade battles, bestseller Matt Hilton dials up the intensity in this rip-roaring, set-piece filled thriller perfect for fans of Lee Child, David Baldacci and Stephen Leather.

Available now:  http://amzn.eu/8jiDk7w