BLOG TOUR: Hit by P.S. Bridge
Hola readers! As today's stop for HIT by P.S. Bridge, I have a lot of information to throw your way! Scroll on down to get a synopsis, a day in the life of the author, character spotlight, fact file and my review!
Book Description:
A terrorist threat,
a sinister organisation, and a threat to the security of the free world.
Renowned British lawyer and Sandhurst military
academy dropout, Mark Lucas King is assigned the case of his career: to
prosecute known terrorist Mohammed Al-Azidi.
All King wants is
justice and to do his job successfully. But his peaceful life is shattered when
a team of merciless hitmen targets him and his family and the court case
collapses. Framed for assault and suspected of his wife's murder, King must leave
his legal career behind and go back to his old career as a British Army sniper
in order to catch those responsible and hold them to account. Mark King's brand
of justice doesn’t involve a court room.
Forced to battle
against highly trained hitmen to clear his name, King discovers that a sinister
organisation known as Invictus Advoca is operating behind the scenes.
What is their connection to him and the Al-Azidid case?
As the hunt for
those responsible takes him far across Europe, can Mark unravel the mysteries
that shroud this secretive organisation and peel back the layers to discover
why he and his family have found themselves the target of professional hitmen?
Time is not on Mark
King's side as he races to prevent a global terror threat, discover who killed
his wife, and find out who wants him dead, and why.
Purchase from Amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hit-P-S-Bridge-ebook/dp/B071G9Y6HL/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1499939999&sr=1-1&keywords=hit+ps+bridge
Purchase
from Barnes & Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hit-p-s-bridge/1126540677?ean=9781911525868
About the Author:
Living in Hampshire, right
on the edge of Southampton Water, P.S Bridge has spent over a decade working in
the private financial and legal sector. Away from his professional life, he
embraces his creative side and is often found writing stories whilst listening
to music. An avid reader from a young age he counts author Scott Mariani as one
of the many influences that finally encouraged him to put the finishing touches
to the first in his Mark King thriller
series.
A Day in the Life of
the Author
P.S Bridge
I
haven’t met too many authors personally, so I can only really relate to my own
circumstances.
As
my partner goes to work most mornings at 5am, my day involves, on a school day,
getting up at 7am to take my step-daughter to school. She’s 7 and into
everything so it’s a real job to focus her mind on the task at hand, usually
having breakfast, packing a school bag, dressing, brushing teeth and getting
out of the door without pockets full of toys she shouldn’t be taking to school,
all while listening to the entire Moana soundtrack on repeat!
Once
I have dropped her at school, and had a catch up with other parents about the
latest developments and playground gossip, I tend to rush home to write. I know
it sounds cliché but I really can’t wait to find out what’s in store for my
characters. I have breakfast when I get home, and the laptop goes on, out comes
my brainstorming board and the process begins.
The
first step is to re-read what part I got to the day before and cast my eye over
the plot synopsis I have usually pre-written, and make sure I’m following the
direction I want the book to go in. Some days I see things or hear things which
I think I can use, it might be something I hear on the news, or hear someone
talking about and I think ‘oh that would be a good idea for the book,’ and out
comes the small notebook and pen I carry with me.
The
actual writing part usually begins at around 10.30am and it’s usually at this
point I pray the phone won’t ring to distract me. I put on YouTube or a CD and
the style of music will depend on the type of scene I’m writing. If it’s a
battle scene, I’ll look for some fantastic tense and dramatic music to set the
tone in my mind. If I’m planning on writing a new scene in a new location, it’s
at this point I’ll research everything about that location, the surroundings,
the terrain, the type of people and time of day and year, the weather for that
time of year, even down to the type of clothes people would wear and the types
of vehicles, nature and surroundings to really get the detail.
It’s
really hard to tear myself away from writing when I really get into it. I tend
to be one of those people who says ‘oh yes I’ll just finish off this little bit
then break for lunch,’ and then an hour later I’m still typing away, having
forgotten all about the time! But most of the time I’ll set an alarm for say,
12:00pm. Once I break for lunch, if the weathers nice, I’ll go for a walk down
to the beach across the road from where I live and actually physically remove
myself from writing or I’ll end up going back to it instead of eating.
Honestly, the amount of tea’s and coffee’s I’ve let go cold because I’ve sat
back at my laptop to re-read something, then begun working on it again, means
we go through milk, teabags and coffee more than anyone else I know. Sometimes
I’ll get on with housework or spend an hour food shopping at my local Tesco,
ironing and washing clothes before heading back to the laptop.
There
are days I will set aside for research days. If I am in need of a new character
or location, I’ll usually head out to town or again, down to the beach for
inspiration, especially on the nicer days. In the winter I tend to stay at home
and focus on writing, doing research on the internet. However, before I know
it, its 2:30 and it’s time to go back to the school to collect my step-daughter
and bring her home.
I
will focus on her after school once we get home, sitting and doing homework
with her, before getting the dinner ready. As my partner works early and late
shifts, it’s only fair that she should come home to a dinner after a long day
at work. I sit and eat dinner with the little lady, wash up and let her watch
some TV while I do a little more writing. In the evening, she goes to bed and
the writing continues until my partner comes home, then I have to be strict and
turn the laptop off but not before I’ve described (sometimes in great detail)
what I’ve written today to her, before giving her the download on the day as a
whole and hearing her download from work.
Extract from HIT:
In this scene, Mark King is lying in
wait in a freight yard, having tracked a shipment of illegal weapons to a
container being stored at the yard by a dubious, slimy yard owner Martin
Underhill. I had an awful lot of fun writing this scene and listened to some
eerie music to set the tone. As Mark had already visited the location earlier
that day, under the guise of one of his Aliases and posing as a client who
required shipment of ‘precious cargo’ after finding some paperwork for the
company on the body of his previous ‘hit’, he returns at night and attempts to
prevent the container from leaving the yard by any means necessary.
Night
fell as the freight yard’s automatic lights flickered into action, making a
faint pinging sound as the bulbs warmed up. A thick fog was crawling in while
the sound of distant foghorns echoed, muffled by the fog. Mark arrived at the
shipping company, this time ready for business. He parked in an old disused
warehouse next to the freight yard after reviewing the footage his hidden
camera had taken and making a note of all the places not covered by CCTV. He
eyed up the cranes and forklifts as they sat silently and driverless. As per
his earlier visit, Mark had allocated a crane to use as a vantage point but had
brought along some specialist equipment he found at the bunker: small remote
control camera tripods which were movement-sensitive. He had attached small
rapid fire rifles to these and wired the trigger up to the flash so that
whenever they sense movement, they would turn and fire. He crept silently and
stealthily through the corridors of containers and warehouses, clutching his
kit bag and placing these tripods and hidden locations, all the time mapping
his route. Finally he climbed the crane where he mounted one of his two sniper
rifles. He took out his small notebook laptop and set it up next to him. The
display showed an interactive map with eight flashing red dots. These were the
tripods. He clicked the option marked ‘activate’ and watched as they all swung
round to locate any movement before resting still. He didn’t want to arm them
yet as he wanted to wait for hell to break loose. Mark sat silent and still,
waiting.
It wasn’t long before armed guards and
thugs wandered about on their patrols. Mark had learned since his last ‘hit’
and had removed the telescopic sight cover so nothing reflective could be seen.
He swung his M24 sniper rifle around and calculated which guard to hit first so
the others didn’t see. Mark took aim at the first guard, waiting until he was
out of sight of the others, slowed his breathing down, controlled his heart
rate and felt his finger lightly on the trigger. He took one last breath in,
eased it out carefully and squeezed the trigger. The only sound was the much
muffled thud of the silencer as the guard dropped to the ground, thanks to
Mark’s clean headshot. The M24 rifle was quieter now as he had muffled the
silencer. Swinging round to the next guard who was on a part run, part jog to
where his comrade had fallen, Mark tracked him, waiting until he stood over the
body of the other guard. Again breathing deeply and slowly, Mark caressed the
trigger, calming himself down from the rush of adrenaline, lined the crosshairs
up and braced for the muffled thud. The second guard dropped to the ground,
over the first. Mark moved away from his scope and smiled. He had taken him out
with another clean headshot.
Mark
hit three more guards in quick succession, just as he had done the previous
two, before reloading and moving to another location on the roof of the nearest
warehouse.
Character Spotlight
Mark King
The
character of Mark King was an amalgamation of a few different legal employees I
was lucky enough to meet during my 13 year career in the legal and financial
industry. One of these was an army reservist who wanted to be a sniper. I took
various parts of these people and their background and injected them into one
person, and the character of Mark King was born.
Mark
was born in Oxford, England and educated at St Andrews University where he met
Marie, his now wife. In his university days, he always wanted to be in the Army
and quickly came to the attention of his superiors due to his skills with a
sniper rifle and ability to his seemingly improbable targets from great
distances. He was picked him out as officer material and sent to Sandhurst
Military Academy to be prepared for an officer role, but was dismissed for
improper conduct and refusal to follow orders.
In fact, the truth was that he attacked and hospitalised several
recruits after they attempted to water board a fellow recruit and some sort of
initiation ceremony and the recruit nearly died.
Determined
to stay in the military, but persuaded to leave by his wife Marie who was
terrified for his safety, he abandoned his military career and became a Lawyer,
working his way to Leaver & Sons LLP and under the wing of its co-owner
Hugo Leaver.
Mark
King has 2 children; Hope Marie King, and Joseph Benjamin King (Known as Ben)
because Marie insisted on Joseph and Mark didn’t like the name so always used
the name Ben. Mark met Marie at St Andrews University after reading Law and the
two soon became inseparable, eventually marrying.
Marks
father was in the army, attached to a Military Archaeology Battalion whose task
it was to ensure that, during war, historical or archaeological sites were
preserved, guarded from the battle, logged, and handed back to their original
owners. He died under mysterious circumstances when Mark was young.
Mark
loves classical music and 80’s music, John Player Special cigarettes which he
frequently tries to give up, and Glenfiddich Whiskey, often using this to treat
shock and stress. He has a love for walking,
especially in the Scottish Highlands where he can be himself and enjoy peace
and quiet. He hates Interpol, Detlev ‘The Wolf’ Kastner, head of the German
Intelligence Service and injustice in general, with a particular dislike for
Social Services in the UK. His other pet hate is Dr Duncan Medway, Battlefield,
and Cognitive Behavioural Therapist.
He has a multitude of skills including many with a sniper rifle,
currently holding the UK record for the longest distance shot. He prefers small
weapons usage because they can be easily concealed, and is adept at hand to
hand combat and tactical planning.
Mark
likes nothing more than a high calibre, long distance, powerful sniper rifle
and there are several Mark likes. The Israeli-made DAN.338 Rifle is exactly
that, and it's Mark's favourite, along with the AX50 .50 calibre rifle and the
rifle he trains with, the Armalite AR-30 .338 Lapua. However, he will use practically
anything he can make use of. His preferred sidearm is a Glock 22 with a
suppressed silencer.
After
his wife is murdered by professional hitmen, he sets out on a path of revenge
to make those who murdered her, pay for their crime. Deep down he knows it was
a professional hit but it takes some persuasion to convince his mother-in-law
Wendy. He looks for her blessing before setting out on his mission and realises
they will never be safe until those who murdered Marie, are dead. The
interesting journey for me when creating Mark King, was the change he goes
through from advocate of truth and justice, to hitman, breaking the law rather
than using it to punish criminals, and his use of the same criminals he put in
prison, to aid him. He visits several offenders he prosecuted during his career
including one, Russo, an Italian mafia boss and weapons hauler who Mark never
quite managed to put in prison. The humour element of it as far as Mark is
concerned, is that Russo is fully aware of Marks circumstances by the time he
faces him, and actually insists on providing Mark with weapons and a vehicle to
help him defeat Invictus Advoca, simply because it’s putting his own men out of
business.
Throughout
the book, Mark is very serious. The once jovial loving family man has gone, and
in his place, is a cold, hardened killer with revenge at the forefront of his
mind. The problem is, to start with, Mark is not very good, and makes several
mistakes. He is somewhat blinded by vengeance and often cannot tell the
difference between justice and revenge. He believes the only way to ensure his
families safety, is to kill, and keep killing until everyone connected with his
wife’s murder, is dead. He also believes putting them on trial is no good as
the courts will simply let the victim down, and so death, in his mind, is the
only option for these people.
I found the idea of Mark King intriguing,
not least because of the change in both his employment, and his loss of
direction after his wife’s murder. He gets so caught up in killing, that it
starts to affect him psychologically, relying on Glenfiddich and cigarettes to
obtain release from the trauma and fear. However, when he is behind the scope
of his sniper rifle, he has the ability to focus his mind, relax himself, and
take the shot because it requires several steps, much like preparing a case for
prosecution. He knows he has to relax his muscles, calm his breathing, and
clear his mind of everything but the target, and can compartmentalise
everything else, dealing with it at a later time.
Mark’s
determination to bring his wife’s killers to justice didn’t account for there
being a wider situation where his wife’s death was only a small part. As he
delves further and further into the darkness, he uncovers more and more things
he used to think were the stuff of conspiracy theories and stories. One such
conspiracy was the idea of a secretive and mysterious organisation which rules
from the shadows and has world governments in its pocket. Suddenly, he believes
the idea of finding Marie’s killers gets a whole lot harder and just when he
thinks he has the person who pulled the trigger, he finds out there is someone
else higher up the chain of command, which may be responsible. He has to come
to terms with the fact that it is not just a case of finding someone and
putting a bullet in them, but about knowing who to trust and who is useful who
can lead him to those who make the decisions.
Mark
King’s life is as much about self-discovery as it is about changing everything
he ever knew. Suddenly his family depend solely on him, after spending so much
time away on his high flying career. He has to learn how to be a parent as well
as a protector and a killer, and he doesn’t find it easy.
One
thing you can be certain of with Mark King; until he feels his family is safe
again, he absolutely will not stop.
I'm not big on politics, terrorism or anything of the like so when I first started reading this I groaned... what did I get myself into? But the story is actually more based on Mark getting justice for the murder of his wife. I really wish I had the above character description read before I finished the book. I think it gave me much more insight to Mark's character and made him more likable and the book more enjoyable. The book starts fast with action and continues throughout. While the action is forthcoming and continuous and keeps you turning the pages to see if Mark will actually get there - there seems to be a bit of lack of character building. I think as the series continues, maybe we will get more insight to Mark. One thing is certain, he will not stop until he gets vengeance for his wife's murder. It was definitely quite the ride in seeing how he got there - a hot shot lawyer who puts work before family delving back into his own military training.... If you're big on action, revenge with a bit of a feel like the movie, Taken, you'll love this book.
No comments
Leave a Comment