Never Forgotten
It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that we have to say a great man has gained his heavenly wings. Mr. Wright was a wonderfully talented musician and writer. Our hearts and prayers are with his family and friends at this very difficult time. He will never be forgotten and we wanted to share an interview that he did for his book HARD ACT.
When did you become interested in storytelling?
Schooldays.
What was your first book/story published?
“The Torch”
What inspired you to write HARD ACT?
In 2011 when American Seal Team Six hunted down and killed Osama bin Laden on presidential orders in Operation Neptune Spear in Abbadabad, Pakistan it was the final act in an ultra-secret CIA operation hailed by US president Barrack Obama as a huge success and was seen as the crowning achievement of his presidency. Yet according to Brigadier Shaukat Qadir who investigated Operation Neptune Spear for the Pakistan government, this was only achieved through Bin Laden’s betrayal by Al Qaeda itself, which, by completely deceiving the CIA, received the $25,000,000 cash bounty America had placed on their ailing leader’s head.
What character in HARD ACT is the most/least like you, and in what ways?
The predictable answer of most like me would, because of my rock music background, be Johnny Rourke … but actually he is the least like me both in background and temperament. The “real” most like me – if there is anyone who fits the bill – I would have to own to the rather peripheral character of ‘C’ the MI6 chief, mainly because he observes all from the side-lines, detached, yet deeply involved and holding the strings of the plot together until the very end … just like the author!
What is your favorite part in HARD ACT?
The denouement – when it all comes together.
What was the hardest part to write?
The complete rewrite which introduced into the forefront of the action the character of the rogue CIA agent Ben Markstein who previously in earlier drafts was a shadowy figure never actually seen. My literary agent Linda Langton of Langtons International, New York convinced me that Markstein was the key that would bring success in getting HARD ACT published – and it worked. It was tough though, starting writing the entire book again!
What would your ideal career be, if you couldn't be an author?
My original career intention was law (criminal not corporate) but music grabbed me by the throat and would not let go.
Do you read reviews of your books? If so, do you pay any attention to them, or let them influence your writing?
I do read reviews but I’m not generally influenced by them – unless a strong constructive point is made which I feel I should heed for future books.
What well-known writers do you admire most?
That’s a wide-ranging question which cannot have a simple answer. It’s like art and the differing style of painters. I’ll always pick-up and enjoy the work of the “Old Masters” of the thriller genre, Greene, Higgins, Le Carre, Forsyth, Deighton - just as I enjoy the new successful authors like Lee Child … but frankly, with me, it comes down to the book, not the writer, and it does not have to be a thriller to grab me. I read voraciously and have so many books I’m running out of space!
Do you have any other books/stories in the works?
I have two plots on my creative back-burner, neither related in any way to HARD ACT. I never talk about unwritten work because I find it takes the edge off the excitement of writing something new and fresh. So it’s “wait and see” for the moment `I’m afraid.
Thanks for the interview. Been great to chat!
Geoffrey Glover Wright
Hard Act by Glover Wright
Thriller
February 21, 2017
Only the CIA knows the truth, and all it would take for the president’s legacy to be tarnished forever is for one agent involved to turn rogue and reveal everything . . .
In 2011, American Seal Team Six killed Osama bin Laden in an ultra-secret CIA operation hailed as the outgoing US president’s crowning achievement. Pakistan's chief investigator into US Operation Neptune Spear concluded Bin Laden was betrayed by Al Qaeda itself, fooling the CIA and gaining the US president’s bounty on their ailing leader’s head: $25,000,000, which may have given birth to deadly ISIS.
Loner, Agent Ben Markstein, betrayed and primed for retribution by his obsession with the Pakistani beauty at the dark heart of HARD ACT, an unsanctioned covert black operation planned by former US Senator Wendell Strachan to save the president and regain the $25,000,000 held in a Liechtenstein bank account by Saudi Prince Faisal bin Sharif, CEO of a billion-dollar Islamic charity trust and secret terrorist money-launderer.
Markstein learns that Serena Lashari, the beautiful, clever, successful Geneva-based fund-manager is Prince Faisal’s lover and has the account codes. He acts ruthlessly, manipulating Wendell Strachan and the black operation to win Serena and the money for himself.
Against a background of political conspiracy and escalating violence across Europe, culminating in potential catastrophe at a nuclear-armed U.S.A.F air-base in England, Ben Markstein plays HARD ACT’s ruthless game to win – even at the cost of the lives of all who stand in his way.
About the Author:
Glover Wright has a background in entertainment. He was lead-guitarist in the 1960’s for American Rock Legends Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent on their British tours, recorded as Buddy Britten & the Regents, was with the Beatles in their early Hamburg days and, through his friendship with John Lennon, became composer and producer with The Beatles Apple Music. After the Beatles split, he signed with Mercury records USA, had success as Simon Raverne and toured widely entertaining US troops, an experience he remembers with pride.
With writing in mind, he broke from music in the 1970’s and spent time with contract soldiers and British SAS units in Oman, resulting in his debut novel The Torch, which was accepted immediately by Putnam USA and published worldwide including many translations. During his extended period in the Middle East he met many figures later to shape world events, including Libya’s Moammar al-Gaddafi and in Beirut’s celebrity-haunt nightclub Le Cave de Roywas invited – after being recognized and asked to perform a song on stage – to join the table hosted by a wealthy young Saudi Arab named Osama Bin Laden.
Glover Wright has had eight novels published to date and lives now in Jersey, British Channel Islands. He still performs musically at charity fund-raisers for servicemen and women wounded in action and is proud to do so.
HARD ACT is his most hard-hitting and timely thriller to date. World best-selling writer Jack Higgins describes it as: “The most ingenious thriller I have read this year.”
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