HENRY BRIDE

       Henry Bride is an agent with Homeland Security.
       He has been one for quite a few years, more than a decade, and he is good at it. He is a sniper, trained as one in the Navy where years before he had held the rank of Lieutenant. "His employers ... trust him with certain 'special' missions - missions that on occasion had him bluntly taking the lives of certain enemies of the country." Making the transition to DHS he continued in the role of sniper used when going after suspected or known terrorists, usually in the capacity of wanting to arrest the perpetrators but needing to be ready to eliminate them before innocent lives could be lost. Bride is definitely not trigger happy in that he does not regret when his 'talents' are not actually used but he does not hesitate to perform when told to take the shot.
       When we first meet him he is taking some forced time off because of a good shoot but since the target in that operation was black in the days of "Black Lives Matter" he is out of the action pending formal investigation. Interestingly, had he not been so he would not likely have taken the trip to St. Louis to pay his respects to an old friend and his life would not have taken the turn that it did.
       One of Bride's hobbies and a sport that he has gotten very good at is fencing and in both the recorded adventures we have of his he is active in that exercise and it will play a part in both missions. He fences usually with the sabre which sounds to me like the more dangerous of the three because it is not just the tip that is deadly like the other two (I could be wrong) but the entire length. Bride enjoys the added challenge because that added complexity suits him so well.
       Bride is also, when he is not looking down the barrel of his rifle, an investigator and a hunter of people and one of those called in when there is evidence someone is out there ready to do harm and someone has to track him down and stop him. Bride is that someone.

       The two Bride stories are good, enjoyable reads with characters that are interesting as well as believable. In one case Bride is on assignment and the situation calls for him to give chase to an armed suspect and that man is in very good shape. While Bride is not out of shape by any means, he struggles with the protracted run and eventually loses and by the time it was over, I was out of breath as well.
       Which makes the point that Bride is good at his job and enjoys it but he is not a super-agent. He is human with ups and downs and good points and not-so-good. His adventures are entertainment.