Joshua Hood, author of “Warning Order: A Search and Destroy Thriller” , former 82nd Airborne soldier, and current member of the SWAT team in Memphis, TN answered some questions for SOFREP. Warning Order is the second book in the Search and Destroy thriller series. The series is about Mason Kane, a blacklisted American soldier and special operations legend. In “Warning Order”, Mason Kane is determined to stop an ISIS attack against the US military after making a deal with the CIA to clear his name. In the process of trying to stop the attack, he finds himself in a web of twisted ISIS connections, all leading back to the President’s inner circle. Check out an excerpt HERE.

Q&A:

1) How does your military and law enforcement experience play into your writing style? 

I write from military experience when it comes to the gunfights—the smell and feel of the action—but the cop in me comes out when defining the characters and their motivations.

2) How far do you want to take this series? 

I’d like to close in the next couple of Mason Kane books. For me it revolves around the question of, “How much damage can one man take?”

3) How do real life situations influence the scenes in your book? 

In 2014 when I was researching Warning Order there were all these graphic images of torture and crucifixion coming out of Syria. The horror of those pictures and reports sparked this emotion in me like, “Someone has to pay for this.” That violence became almost a character in the book, and I felt the only way to do it right was by portraying every gritty detail. I wanted everything to be visceral and honest.

4) Who did you base the main character on? 

Physically, Mason Kane is a mixture of guys I met in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the depth of his character—what you might call his mythos—came from reading about guys like John McPhee and Jerry Shriver.

5) What makes your book stand out from the other military thrillers in the market? 

The designing principle behind Warning Order was to transport the reader into the chaos of battle. Put him or her right in the middle of a firefight, and let them experience the evil that is behind groups like ISIS.

Warning Order is available now on Amazon