Mark Henwick Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Bite Back Books
Sleight of Hand | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Hidden Trump | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Raw Deal | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Wild Card | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Cool Hand | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Angel Stakes | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Inside Straight | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Queen of Diamonds | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Snake Eyes | (2024) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Bite Back: Outsiders Books
The Biting Cold | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Winter's Kiss | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Change of Regime | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Bian's tale Books
The Harvest of Lies | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Long Way Home Books
The Dark Takes Fools | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Out of the Dark | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Born in Fire | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
No Other Course | (2023) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
A Name Among the Stars | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Threat Among the Stars | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Anthologies
Mark Henwick is a bestselling urban fantasy novelist that is best known for the “Science Fiction Among the Stars” and the “Bite Back” series of novels. The author was born in Africa and during his childhood could not make up his mind about what he wanted to be between a fighter pilot, Soldier, or cowboy.
From very early on, he developed an interest in psychology and philosophy, even as he also became a voracious reader. His very early reading was dominated by thrillers, fantasy, and science fiction from Nebula and Hugo award winners from the 1960s and the 1970s.
Some of his favorite authors of this time include the likes of Larsson, Heinlein, Tolkien, Herber, CJ Cherryh, and Zelazny among many others. Mark still remembers how he intended to enroll in a class so that he could get a chance to read science fiction only to get interested in engineering.
He would ultimately study electronic engineering before moving into marketing and entrepreneurial management.
Mark Henwick has said that always wanted to be a writer and only studied engineering since he knew engineers got paid a lot better.
His very first venture into writing was when he penned a 3.75-page handwritten masterpiece that he titled “The Mystery of the Black Dagger.” It was a genuine mystery looking back since even he did not know what happened.
He would then put writing on the back burner as he studied engineering and became a corporate manager. When he was ultimately presented with a choice, he decided that he never wanted to keep commuting to London and working in health care, as all he wanted was to write mystery fiction.
After working in management for several years, he finally published his debut “Sleight of Hand” in 2012. Before then, he had been doing some private writing but time, work and family constraints made it difficult to transition to commercially published works.
In 2011, he finally got the opportunity to quit his management job, and not more than a year later, he published his debut. According to the author, he first considered himself a writer when he was no longer getting his comfortable and fat salary in his account.
Henwick’s love for telling tales still burns very strong as he has now written more than 18 works.
As for the inspiration for his debut, Mark Henwick has said that he was frustrated with how urban fantasy authors keep sweeping things under the carpet. He started thinking that there had to be a way to make things work and wrote his manuscript.
But just like with most authors, the journey to publication was not easy as he got rejected by every publisher he sent the manuscript to. Ultimately, he decided to publish on Amazon after seeing how good the ratings were for his type of urban fantasy fiction.
Most of his success came from pitching a low price and investing in a great cover that stood out among the many other works of urban fantasy in the catalog. He was fortunate enough that the work almost immediately took off in sales making it possible for him to become a full-time author.
Mark Henwick usually gets his high through less conventional means of going down and dirty on a mountain bike or flying a microlight aircraft whenever he is not working.
The man currently makes his home in southern England where he lives with his Singaporean Chinese wife. He is most famous as the father to the “Game of Thrones” character Lady Nymeria.
In “Sleight of Hand” by Mark Henwick, we meet private investigator Amber who has a dark past. While she was working for a secret army unit, she has been the victim of an attack by a vampire and had been bitten.
The army has been monitoring her for several years to see if she will turn into a vampire. They have since come up with an ingenious way to monitor her blood and believe that she has been becoming less human.
In the meantime, Amber is working for Jennifer Kingslund a rich client, while also investigating supernatural beings such as werewolves and vampires for the army. Soon enough, she confirms that werewolves do exist, which is quite the revelation.
On the other hand, things become hairy between Amber and Jennifer Kingsslund while she is investigating her client’s interests.
In the meantime, Amber has made contact with the Athanate vampires and discovered they are divided into two factions. One faction is not in the least interested in human rights while the other insists humans should be turned voluntarily after being informed of the risks.
Mark Henwick’s novel “Hidden Trump” opens with Denver private investigator Amber Farrell having to come to terms with being part of the supernatural community. However, she will soon find that living with paranormals means that some dangerous responsibilities are thrust on her.
She also finds that nothing is what it initially seemed to be and in order to survive she will need to create alliances with powerful groups with conflicting interests. However, she knows betrayal is inevitable and that she is expendable.
In the meantime, the city is hosting a meeting with two factions of Athanates who have been stirring following a century of peace. A war between them may turn into a disaster for both the paranormals and humans. The strange thing is that it is Amber that will be blamed for the troubles leading up to the meeting.
Amber has been changing a lot and now accepts that she is a vampire. Because of the timing of her transformation, she becomes the target of almost every paranormal and human that wants to capture and control her.
Amber has also accepted that she may be bisexual even though her attraction to females is all about flirtation while she has some very explicit heterosexual sex.
There is a lot of action making for an impressive and intricate story.
“Wild Card” by Mark Henwick is set a few weeks since Amber prevented a war between two factions of the Athanate vampires. Amber is in the middle of the tug of war between her adept, Athanate, and werewolf parts.
Meanwhile, a rogue werewolf has been killing humans and werewolves and it is up to Amber to take him out. However, things are never that simple when it comes to Amber.
Just as she was beginning to understand her Athanate nature, she is asked to submit to the alpha of the local werewolf, even as the adept community suspects that she might have gone rogue.
Further complicating her life, she is being targeted by the rogue and she is also being hunted by her old military unit.
I love the series Bite Back. I’ve read them three times now. Still find something new emotionally satisfying. Is there a book nine and if so when will it be released.