Tier Zero - Henry Brown

Tommy Scarred Wolf thought he had smelled the powder for the last time ten years ago. Then somebody messed with his family.

With no government willing or able to help out, it's up to Tommy and his detective brother, Vince, to find Vince's kidnapped daughter halfway around the world. But rescuing her is going to take funding, firepower, and friends. Fortunately, Tommy knows some shooters just crazy enough to tag along--including some survivors from his last suicide mission: retired SEAL team commander Rocco Cavarra; former Delta Force operator Jake McCallum; and the unflappable sniper Leon Campbell.

On the ocean, in the jungle, and an urban purgatory, Tommy Scarred Wolf and his warrior brothers will face human traffickers, modern-day pirates, a typhoon, and an ultra-secret black ops team so dangerous even the CIA can’t touch them. There's something far more sinister than just "white slavery" going on here, and it's about to ram these men through a crucible which may never end...except in death.

Yesterday Henry Brown posted about the origins of this novel and some of the characters who star in it. Today I want to offer a few comments about it, the first and most important of which is that it's very, very good.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series, HELL AND GONE. As good as it was, TIER ZERO is better in every way. The characterizations are deeper, the plot has more twists, and hard as it may be to believe, it has even more of the gritty, well-written action scenes at which Brown excels. I thought I knew where the story was going, but it takes a nice hard turn about halfway through that powers it on to the end of the book.

And even though Tommy Scarred Wolf is the protagonist in this book, Rocco Cavarra is back in a strong supporting role. He's one of my favorite current characters and I fully expect we'll be seeing him again in future books.

So if you're a fan of novels that mix military action and international intrigue -- and if you like books that move along at a rapid pace and don't get bogged down in a lot of unnecessary padding (yes, I'm talking to you, 90% of contemporary thrillers), TIER ZERO gets a high recommendation from me. It's available in both print and e-book editions.

And don't forget to drop by Hank's blog to check out the promotion and giveaway he's doing to mark the launch of this book.

Counting Coup with Tommy Scarred Wolf: Guest Post by Henry Brown

COUNTING COUP WITH TOMMY SCARRED WOLF

by Henry (Hank) Brown

Who are your favorite Native American heroes of fiction and film?

If you needed a two-fisted, straight-shooting sidekick, Tonto or Chingachook would probably get the nod. Maybe Posey from The Dirty Dozen or Ben Yazzie from Windtalkers. But what about heroes with the clout to stand on their own, outside of anyone else’s shadow? What about heroes who cast a shadow which other men fall under? Off the top of my head, I would have to nominate Billy Jack, Thunderheart, and Louis L’Amour’s Hondo. (The title character of Geronimo: An American Legend, played by Wes Studi, is disqualified for being historic, not fictional. Besides, he's more of an anti-hero.)

I might have missed somebody, but you have to admit the list is short.

I'm pleased to announce the list may have recently grown by one with the release of Tier Zero. Tommy Scarred Wolf, a Special Forces Gulf War vet, takes over the spotlight in this men's adventure novel, leading a posse of 21st Century gunslingers in a running battle with human traffickers, pirates and a secret team of assassins.

Tommy first appeared in the paramilitary novel Hell and Gone. His genesis came about something like this:

In 2002 I was inspired to write an old-fashioned commando tale--sort of a throwback to the Alistair MacLean novels of WWII. The adventure took place in the Sudan. Since this was a clandestine mission, and the ethnic makeup of that country is mostly black or Arabic, the commando unit had to be composed of shooters who could blend in with the local population. A few black operators were recruited. A couple Hispanics. A Hawaiian. A Lebanese-American. And some veterans of Mediterranean descent--a Greek, an Italian and the Sicilian commanding officer: Dwight "Rocco" Cavarra.

I wasn't about to leave Native Americans unrepresented; not when they've volunteered to fight for the USA in such disproportionately huge numbers compared to any other demographic during every war fought since 1898.

I'd been a civilian for a while by 2002, but I felt a kinship with veterans I didn't share with most people. Me and other vets sort of gravitated toward each other, you could say. One of them I spent some time with was a Shawnee veteran of the 101st "Screaming Eagles."

For those who don't keep track of such things, be advised that the 101st Airborne Division ceased being Airborne in all but name after Vietnam--transforming to "Air Assault"--a glorified air mobile/heliborne formation. I had been a paratrooper in the 82nd ("All-Americans"-- the only true airborne division left in the US Army), and never tired of reminding him that both of us might have had the "Airborne" tab above our unit patches, but only mine meant anything.

Yeah, I was a jerk. And he was a really good sport about all my teasing. Anyway, one time I mentioned a souvenir I got from one of the prisoners my platoon captured. I still kept it with me, all those years later, even though none of my family or friends could understand or appreciate its significance to me. The epiphany came when he pointed out that the souvenir was actually a coup trophy.

With an interest in history that continues to this day, I had read enough about the "Indian" Wars to understand the concept of counting coup. But I had never made the connection between that and my souvenir-collecting habit from my infantry days. I grew obsessed with the matter for a time, and pumped him for information. So far as I know the Shawnee were never in the practice of counting coup, yet he seemed to be very knowledgeable on the subject. Tommy Scarred Wolf was conceived during this epiphany.

Tommy’s parents failed to pass down a connection to his warrior heritage. He desperately craved that connection as a child and young man. Unlike his brother, Vince, he clung to his dream and pushed himself to become a fighting man of distinction. He also adopted customs of red men from generations long past--counting coup in particular. No, he doesn't scalp enemy soldiers. He does pretty much what I did--taking enemy knives, boots, unit patches, etc.

It's probably a horrible cliché to say something like this, but as the first draft of Hell and Gone was written, Tommy Scarred Wolf took on a life of his own. He and another character stole the show: bringing smoke, taking names, and out-John-Wayne-ing pretty much every other bad mamma-jamma involved in the mission. Unlike the other character, Tommy survived.

It was years later before Hell and Gone finally got published. Then, almost from the start, readers began to ask me about a sequel.

Huh?

A sequel hadn't even occurred to me. If it had, I probably wouldn't have killed off so many characters. I certainly wouldn't have painted myself into a corner, plot-wise, as I did.

I didn't take the sequel suggestions seriously, at first. But the seed was planted.

A South African Facebook chum who was an SOF (Special Operations Forces) vet, and involved as a PMC (private military contractor) in the sorts of things I wrote about, bought the paperback edition of Hell and Gone. Don't ask me how he found the time to read it. Of course I was curious what he thought of it, but the only thing he ever said was, "You should write a story about pirate hunting."

The seed was watered.

Other motivations manifested, and I also saw the genre enjoy resurgence, made possible by the e-book revolution and the explosive growth of indie fiction. I made note of what fans of the genre liked and wanted; what was important to them and what wasn't. My level of expertise in marketing and networking grew from Blind Bumbling Boob to Novice New-wave Nebbish. Over the same period of time, an idea grew.

When I was finally ready to put Tier Zero on paper (er, hard drive, I mean), there was no doubt in my mind that Tommy Scarred Wolf would be at center stage this time. And my confidence in him was justified. He took the bull by the horns and proceeded to break its friggin' neck.

In the case of both Hell and Gone and Tier Zero, the kind of adventure I wanted to read was nowhere to be found...so I wrote it myself. The same can be said for the type of hero I long to see kicking the bad guys where it hurts. Time will tell whether or not Tommy Scarred Wolf joins the short list of iconic Native American heroes in popular culture. I think he's long overdue.

If you're new to the Men's Adventure Blog Tour, Visit Hank's Two-Fisted Blog to find the schedule, the prizes and the ways to win!

(My review of TIER ZERO will coming up tomorrow. -- James)

Hell and Gone - Henry Brown

This rag-tag gang of has-beens has never worked together before, but Dwight "Rocco" Cavarra has less than a week to train them and lead them on the hairiest operation of their lives. It's not bad enough that they have to plow through an African civil war, infiltrate a fortified terrorist encampment and steal a black market tactical nuke from a mob of fanatic sociopaths - there are Israeli wild cards in play: two death-dealing Mossad agents who don't necessarily share Cavarra's agenda. When the mission is compromised before it has even started, Rocco and his Retreads are caught between bloodthirsty local warlords and the genocidal government in a fight to the death. And this battle might be just the first in the next world war.

I really enjoyed Henry Brown's Fight Card novel TOMATO CAN COMEBACK, so I wanted to give his debut novel a try. HELL AND GONE is an action/adventure thriller that's reminiscent of THE EXPENDABLES (but much more realistic and not as over-the-top) and THE DIRTY DOZEN (but not as grim and more fun). It's also fast-paced and very well-written. Rocco Cavarra is a fine protagonist and a sequel is on the way. I'm looking forward to it. In the meantime, HELL AND GONE is available in both e-book and trade paperback editions.

Fight Card: Tomato Can Comeback - Jack Tunney (Henry Brown)

One thing I really like about the Fight Card series is that the authors (and editors/creators Paul Bishop and Mel Odom) have found ways to keep the series fresh and different from book to book. For example, the latest entry, TOMATO CAN COMEBACK, by Henry Brown writing under the Jack Tunney house-name, is narrated by sportswriter Gil Schwartz instead of one of the boxers involved in the story.

I also learn things from this series. I didn't know that "Tomato Can" is a derogatory nickname for a fighter who bleeds easily and profusely. In the case of this story, that's Tom Garrick, an alumnus of St. Vincent's in Chicago and a Korean War vet who launches a boxing career with his former sergeant as his trainer. Garrick's career is coming along nicely until he runs into an opponent who not defeats him but gives him a brutal beating that leaves the ring splattered with blood. The rest of the story, as you might expect from the title, is about Garrick's comeback and Schwartz's efforts to uncover the reason for Garrick's uncharacteristic behavior in the fight where he was beaten so badly.

Unlike most of the other Fight Card stories, there's no real crime angle to TOMATO CAN COMEBACK, but it's plenty hardboiled anyway with its mean streets portrayal of Detroit and a sense of gritty, sweaty desperation reminiscent of the work of Orrie Hitt. Schwartz and Garrick are flawed but sympathetic characters, as is Garrick's old sergeant. There's a romantic triangle, but it's handled in a low-key, realistic fashion rather than becoming more of a soap opera. Although as I've said many times, there's nothing wrong with soap opera where I'm concerned, it just wouldn't have worked as well here.

This is one of my favorite Fight Card books so far, and that's saying a lot because I've thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I haven't read anything else by Henry Brown, but I'm going to remedy that as soon as I can.