Matt Hilton Books In Order

Publication Order of Joe Hunter Books

Publication Order of Carter Bailey Books

Publication Order of Tess Grey & Po Villere Books

Publication Order of DI Kerry Drake Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Matt Hilton is one of the noteworthy authors from Britain, who likes to write most his novels based on the thriller genre. He has been very fond of writing short stories right from his childhood days. When Matt was only 11 years old, he had attempted to write his first novel. Before going on to become a writer, he used to in a security agency and as well as in the police force. Author Hilton says that he was influenced to write his own novels after reading the popular works of authors such as Dean Koontz, Robert Crais, Robert Howard, Don Pendleton, Jeffery Deaver, as well as a few others. He is well known for developing the lead character named Joe Hunter for his popular thriller series. In addition to using his original name for writing his novels, author Hilton writes under the pseudonym Vallon Jackson. It is believed that author Hilton was born in the same year when England had won the soccer World Cup and that his real name is Matthew Hilton.

Even though he is related to soccer quite often, he is actually interested in martial arts, MMA, and boxing. He says that his interests in boxing and martial arts have developed greatly due to the fact that he has four brothers and often used to scrap his way through the meal times when he was a kid. Author Hilton was born in Scotland, and moved to England along with his family. He spent most of his growing years in Carlisle, Cumbria. He had moved back to his land of birth for a period of 2 years as a teenager and apart from that, he has mainly stayed in England. During his growing days, he used to listen to adventure and horror stories quite often, which were told to him by his father. Author Hilton used to think of his father as a natural storyteller. He even considered natural that his active imagination allowed him to remain indulged in reading and writing books. During his early teenage years, Matt had written a coming of age novel titled ‘Aggro’, which was followed by a few heroic fantasy novels. It did not take him much time to discover his love for crime and action thriller novels. On occasion, author Hilton was selected for a national writing competition and came 4th in one such competition. He had also written some non-fiction articles at that time, which were published in magazines.

For around 20 years, author Hilton kept on writing novels and submitting them to the publishers, but was not able to gain any success. Till that time, he had contributed 7 standalone thriller novels without getting noticed. However, he was finally able to secure a literary agent in the year 2008, who helped him to get a 5-book deal with a publishing company in writing the Joe Hunter series. After that, author Hilton succeeded in grabbing a three book deal in the United States and a further two book deal in the United Kingdom. A few translation deals also came his way from Germany, Bulgaria, Italy, and Romania. The debut novel written by author Hilton titled ‘Dead Men’s Dust’ was able to reach the eleventh position on the bestseller list of the Sunday Times. It was even nominated for the Debut Thriller Award by ITW in the year 2009. Before joining the private security agency where he worked for 18 years, author Hilton had worked for a number of mundane jobs. Later, he worked as a cop for 4 years. He left his police job at the Cumbria Constabulary in order to become a full time writer and focus on his popular Joe Hunter series. The written works of Matt Hilton are influenced from the fantasy and horror writers of the 1930s and 1970s. Among all the writers who have influenced him, he likes the works of John Connolly very much. In addition to the thriller novels, author Hilton also writes humorous and horror short stories.

The Joe Hunter series written by author Matt Hilton consists of a total of 10 books published between the years 2009 and 2015. All the novels of the series feature Joe Hunter as a vigilante on hire living in the USA, who is a former counterterrorism operative from Manchester, England. The first novel of the series was released under the title ‘Dead Men’s Dust’. It was published by the William Morrow publishing house in the year 2009. The plot of this novel introduces the character of Joe Hunter as a person who solves the problems of his clients. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, he is depicted as an ex-CIA agent as well as an ex-military operative, and is quite good at whatever he does. Joe comes to know that his brother, with whom he does not have a good relation, has been missing. He also learns that what he is going to face next is something that he has never experienced in his life. Another character named Tubal Cain is shown, who is described as being a smart, arrogant, and stealthy person. He is also quite sentimental and considers his set of knives as his most precious possession. When his favorite Bowie among the set of knives gets stolen, Cain becomes very much furious and decides to do whatever it takes to have it back. Joe Hunter comes to know the thief was his own brother, who has since been on the run for his life. In order to save his brother’s life, Hunter is required to find Cain. All the three men are taken to a barren spot in Southwest America after a tense chase, a place which is filled with nothing but the dust of the dead men.

The second novel of the Joe Hunter series was published under the title ‘Judgement and Wrath’. It was released by the Hodder & Stoughton publishing house in the year 2009. The plot of this novel once again depicts the events happening around the life of the main character named Joe Hunter. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, it is shown that Hunter is living a new life in Florida after nearly escaping while trying to save his brother from getting killed by a deranged killer. But soon, he gets approached by a man who wants him to bring back his daughter named Marianne. The man tells him that her boyfriend is not a good man and he can do whatever it takes to get his daughter home safely. However, when Joe Hunter meets his daughter, he finds her extremely happy with his boyfriend. Things take a twisting turn when a contract killer named Dantalion tries to kill Marianne and her boyfriend named Jorgenson. Dantalion seems to be a ruthless person and does not let anyone come in the way of his targets. But, when Hunter saves Jorgenson and Marianne, the situation turns into an extremely deadly cat and mouse game, which takes the hunter as well as the hunted targets deep into the swamplands of Florida.

2 Responses to “Matt Hilton”

1. Dave Howes: 2 years ago

   Happened to come across Dead Men`s Dust what a great book was not able to put it down shall be getting all the rest of the series. Looking forward to my next read.

   Reply
2. Andrew William May: 3 years ago

   I have read No place safe and Marked for death that i bought at a book stall and loved the character so much I have googled your books, wow you have so many, cannot wait to read them
   Andrew

   Reply