Tag: action

#BookReview Fortress of Fury by Matthew Harffy @AriesFiction

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Aries Blog Tour BannerI’m thrilled to be taking part in the blog tour to celebrate the launch of Aries, the brand new imprint of Head of Zeus dedicated to international thrillers, speculative fiction and tales of adventure. Today’s stop is all about Fortress of Fury by Matthew Harffy, the seventh book in The Bernicia Chronicles series. Already available as an ebook, the hardback edition is due to be published in October and is available to pre-order now.

My thanks to Vicky and Jade at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy of Fortress of Fury via NetGalley.

9781786696366About the Book

Beobrand is besieged in the action-packed instalment in the Bernicia Chronicles set in AD 647 Anglo-Saxon Britain.

War hangs heavy in the hot summer air as Penda of Mercia and his allies march into the north. Caught unawares, the Bernician forces are besieged within the great fortress of Bebbanburg. It falls to Beobrand to mount the defence of the stronghold, but even while the battle rages, old and powerful enemies have mobilised against him, seeking vengeance for past events.

As the Mercian forces tighten their grip and unknown killers close in, Beobrand finds himself in a struggle with conflicting oaths and the dreadful pull of a forbidden love that threatens to destroy everything he holds dear.

With the future of Northumbria in jeopardy, will Beobrand be able to withstand the powers that beset him and find a path to victory against all the odds?

Format: ebook (374 pages)               Publisher: Aries
Publication date: 6th August 2020 Genre: Historical fiction, action

Find Fortress of Fury (The Bernicia Chronicles, #7) on Goodreads

Pre-order/Purchase links*
Amazon UK | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

I promise that, at some point, I will read this series from the beginning. So far I’ve only read the previous book in the series, Storm of Steel, which I loved. I also very much enjoyed Wolf of Wessex, Matthew’s standalone historical mystery published in November 2019. Links from the titles will take you to my reviews. You can also read my Q&As with Matthew about two earlier books in the series – Warrior of Woden and Killer of Kings.

Although Fortress of Fury is the seventh book in the series it can definitely be enjoyed as a standalone. The book has brief references to events and characters in previous books but this is done in a such a way that it certainly won’t stop me going back and reading earlier books.

As fans of the series have come to expect, there are thrilling battle scenes with vivid descriptions of blood-splattered, bone-crunching encounters between Beobrand’s loyal Black Shields and their enemies, in this case the marauding Mercians. Beobrand himself is a fearsome warrior. “He was born to this… Now there was nothing but the night, cold steel and the hot blood of his enemies. This was the dance of death, and Beobrand knew every step.” For Beobrand though, each victory comes at a price, as the faces of the men he has killed often haunt his nightmares.

Without in any way intruding on the story or the pace of events, the book has a mass of fascinating detail about domestic life in a noble house of the period, weaponry and the political landscape of 7th century Anglo-Saxon Britain, with its different tribes and factions. I loved the scenes set within the beseiged fortress of Bebbanburg as its inhabitants and those who have sought refuge behind its supposedly impregnable walls prepare to withstand the enemy onslaught. I really felt I was there manning the barricades alongside them.

As well as his prowess with a sword and seax, Beobrand possesses numerous other qualities. I confess the references to the broadness of his chest, his powerful arms and the shape of his muscled legs made me think it might not be such a burden to be stuck in a besieged castle alongside him. However, since I’d have a much more well-connected and alluring rival it would definitely make it a fortress of fury!

I liked how the author explored the responsibilities that come with leadership. As Beobrand confides, “a man’s promise to his lord is both a treasure and a burden“. His gesithas are not just men sworn to serve him, they are his ‘shield-brothers’ whom he has a duty to protect. “He was their leader and must be stronger than any of them. That was his wyrd, the destiny of a lord.”

From time to time, the reader gets to see events from the point of view of Cynan, one of Beobrand’s loyal gesithas. Despite proving himself on an important mission and earning the trust of a group of men, Cynan underestimates his own leadership ability. “He knew they were not truly his men, they were but ceorls who had turned to a warrior with a horse, helm and sword in a moment of need.” The inclusion of this different point of view also provides another perspective on Beobrand’s character and the way his brooding silences and sudden changes of mood affect his men.

In the tense final chapters, Beobrand finds himself “trapped between two oaths“. He is faced with a terrible choice: to carry out the command of the king he has sworn to obey which will involve betraying his own code of honour; or to break his oath of allegiance with all the consequences that will follow both for him and those who stand with him. Which course will he choose? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

As the prospect of war looms, Beobrand and the people of Bernicia are entitled to wonder how events will play out “on the great tafl board of kings“. Beobrand has a reputation for being lucky but, as the author confides in his historical note, “The future looks uncertain, with intrigues and danger lurking over every hill and in every shadow”. That seems a pretty enticing prospect to me.

In three words: Action-packed, immersive, thrilling

Try something similar: The Smile of the Wolf by Tim Leach

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Harffy_MatthewAbout the Author

Matthew Harffy grew up in Northumberland where the rugged terrain, ruined castles and rocky coastline had a huge impact on him.

He now lives in Wiltshire, England, with his wife and their two daughters.

Connect with Matthew
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#BlogTour #Extract Robert Ludlum’s™ The Treadstone Resurrection by Joshua Hood @HoZ_Books

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The Treadstone Resurrection Blog Tour

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Treadstone Resurrection by Joshua Hood, the first book in an explosive new series inspired by Robert Ludlum’s Bourne universe. To give you a flavour of the book, I have a fabulous excerpt from one of the early chapters below. Thanks to Anna at Midas PR for inviting me to take part in the tour.

Hood_Treadstone ResurrectionAbout the Book

Treadstone made Jason Bourne an unstoppable force, but he’s not the only one.

Working as a cabinet-maker in rural Oregon, Adam thinks he has left Treadstone – the CIA Black Ops programme – in the past, until he receives a mysterious email from a former colleague, and soon after is attacked by an unknown hit team at his job site.

Operation Treadstone has nearly ruined Adam Hayes. The top-secret CIA Black Ops programme trained him to be a nearly invincible assassin, but it also cost him his family and any chance at a normal life, which is why he was determined to get out. Everything changes when he receives a mysterious email from a former colleague, and soon after is attacked by an unknown hit team at his job site rural Oregon.

Adam must regain the skills that Treadstone taught him – lightning reflexes and a cold conscience – in order to discover who the would-be killers are, and why they have come after him now. Are his pursuers enemies from a long-ago mission? Rival intelligence agents? Or, perhaps, someone inside Treadstone? His search will unearth secrets in the highest levels of government and pull him back into the shadowy world he worked so hard to forget.

Format: Hardcover, ebook, audiobook Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 25th February 2020  Genre: Action, Thriller

Find The Treadstone Resurrection (Treadstone #1) on Goodreads

Purchase links*
Amazon UK | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience not as part of any affiliate programme

Extract from The Treadstone Resurrection (Treadstone #1) by Joshua Hood

Chapter 1

LA CONNER, WASHINGTON

Adam Hayes was lying in the center of the bed when the nightmare came. The tremor started at the edge of his lips, a ripple that twisted into a feral snarl. He started to sweat, hands tearing at the sheets, eyes pinballing behind closed lids, mind trapped in the horrors of the past.

He waited in the shadows, eyes closed, ears straining for the sound of his approaching prey. Kill them all – that was the order. He was just the instrument – a man conditioned to kill without hesitation. His hand closed around the hilt of the knife at the small of his back. The metal hilt felt cold through the latex gloves. The blade came free with the hiss of steel on leather and Hayes opened his eyes; the sentry’s face was green in the night
vision.

Now, the voice told him, and he struck.

Hayes’s hand snaked under the pillow and his fingers closed around the reassuring steel of the Springfield 9-millimeter EMP. He rolled off the bed and dropped into a crouch, the hardwood cold as a corpse on his bare knees. Muscle memory had taken over, and his hands worked independently of thought. The snap of the pistol onto the target and the flick of the thumb disengaging the safety came unbidden.

It was only when his index finger curled around the trigger, compressing the spring until all it would take was a whisper of pressure for the gun to fire, that Hayes became conscious of the moment.

Then the nightmare evaporated.

Hayes blinked the world back into focus, his eyes falling to the outstretched pistol, sights centered on the shirt hanging on the back of the door. Jesus Christ.

He let go of the trigger and snicked the safety into place. The realization that he’d come within a hairsbreadth of sending a 9-millimeter hollow-point through the door made him sick to his stomach.

It was 5:05 in the morning and the nightmares were getting worse.

When he trusted his legs to hold him, Hayes grunted to his feet, placed the pistol on the bedside table, and padded across the hardwood to the bathroom. He palmed the wall switch and the overhead lights flashed to life, revealing the mass of scars that crisscrossed his bare torso like lines on a topographic map.

He stopped at the sink, plucked the orange pill bottle from the open medicine cabinet, and twisted the cap free. He shook a dose into his hand. The oblong pill in his callused palm reminded him of the last appointment with the shrink in Tacoma.

“What about the nightmares?” she asked, over the scratch of her pen across the paper.
“Haven’t had one in months.”
“Adam, you are making wonderful progress,” she said, tearing the sheet from the prescription pad, “but.”
There’s always a but.
“But there will be setbacks.”
Setbacks.

He felt the anger stir in his gut, like a wolf waking in its den. Three nightmares in one week wasn’t a setback; it was a fucking meltdown. He was pissed. Mad that he’d listened to her – let himself believe that he’d made progress.

That he could be normal.

“No,” he said aloud. “That’s not who I am anymore.”

He took a breath, placed the pill in his mouth, and gently closed the door. He took a drink of water from the sink, and when Hayes looked up, his eyes alighted on the sheet of construction paper taped to the glass. The stick-figure family holding hands beneath a lemon-yellow sun.

Hayes brushed his finger over the “I love my Daddy” scrawled in crayon, a sad smile stretching across his face.

In the shower, he twisted the cold-water knob all the way to the left and ducked under the showerhead. The water came out of the pipe ice-cold and hit his flesh with the sting of a bullwhip. His mind recoiled, muscles tensed like hawsers beneath his skin, forcing the air from his lungs, but Hayes stood fast and waited for the question that had greeted him every morning for the past eighteen months.

How did I get here?

About the Authors

Robert Ludlum (1927 – 2001) was the author of twenty-seven novels, each one a New York Times bestseller. There are more than 225 million of his books in print, and they have been translated into 32 languages in 50 countries. Among his best-sellers were The Scarlatti Inheritance (1971), The Osterman Weekend (1972), The Matarese Circle (1979). He is most famous for the Jason Bourne series – The Bourne Identity (1980), The Bourne Supremacy (1986) and The Bourne Ultimatum (1990). The series was adapted for TV in 1988, for a film featuring Matt Damon in the lead role in 2002, and for a brand-new TV production from the writer behind Heroes and Chicago Hope in January 2020.

Joshua HoodJoshua Hood is the author of Warning Order and Clear by Fire. He graduated from the University of Memphis before joining the military and spending five years in the 82nd Airborne Division. He was a team leader in the 3-504 Parachute Infantry Regiment in Iraq from 2005 to 2006, conducting combat operations in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. From 2007 to 2008, Hood served as a squad leader with the 1-508th Parachute Infantry Regiment in Afghanistan for which he was decorated for valour in Operation Furious Pursuit. On his return to civilian life he became a sniper team leader on a full time SWAT team in Memphis, where he was awarded the lifesaving medal. Currently he works as the Director of Veteran Outreach for the American Warrior Initiative.

Connect with Joshua
Website | Twitter | Goodreads