Cold Zero

 Cold Zero is a recent book by Brad Thor and Ward Larsen, both of whom have been prolific authors. This is literally an action-packed story, filled with suspense on nearly every page, so be prepared not to put this one down until finished. The storyline is about a Chinese scientist who has a masterful program that is somehow hooked into AI, and it is able to disrupt just about anything including plane flights, missel directions, and nuclear armaments. The device, known in translated English as Sky Fire, would clearly give the owner of the device a clear advantage in any military confrontation. However, just as he is completing his development of the device, Dr. Chen Li has decided to defect to the U.S., which would not prove to be an easy task because he is being so closely guarded by his Chinese overseers.

 

The defection is being managed by a CIA person, Kasey Sheridan, and she gets help from Brett Sharpe, a former fighter pilot who has been living a civilian life. They are trying to secretly leave China,but choose a new super luxurious air service, piloted by Sharpe, thinking China wouldn’t dare bring them down. However, Li’s assistant knew enough about the program to make the plane’s two engines seize simultaneously when they were over the Artic, and it crashed onto an ice flow. A few passengers survived, but some were injured and the Artic conditions were brutal. The nearest vessel was a Russian sub, and both the U.S. and China have sent rescue and recovery planes to help which were hours away, so all of the super powers were engaged with the threat of nuclear war underlying the activity.

 

This the Brad Thor you would expect, but without Scott Harvath as the lead character. If this is your genre, you should love this book.

Shadow Of Doubt by Brad Thor

Lots of balls being juggled here in Thor’s 24^th Scot Harvath story:

1.     A big Russian cargo plane has left Russian airspace and appears headed for Belarus. Destination and cargo both unknown.

2.     A high-level Russian defector walks across the border to Norway asking for asylum, but only if he can hand himself over to Sølvi Kolstad, a very senior officer in the Norwegian version of the CIA . . . who is also Harvath’s fiancé.

3.     A career French spy is set to meet with the CIA’s Chief of Station in Paris, but is brutally murdered in his apartment the night before the meeting. Paris cops and the French DGSI are at odds about jurisdictional conflicts.

4.     Russia is still mired down in Ukraine, wants it done and is looking into ways to finish off Ukraine without invoking a NATO response.

5.     Russian hit squads have been told my Moscow to drop their gloves and do what’s necessary to silence the defector, set up the contents on the mystery plane, and to make sure that whatever secrets the French agent had discovered remain hidden.

6.     And all of that has landed on the Russia Desk at Langley resulting in many sleepless nights for analysts and Directors alike.

For the bulk of the book, Harvath and Kolstad are moving the defector around while staying one step ahead of various hit squads while the French cops and DGSI dance around each other trying to keep the other knowing anything sensitive.

And as usual for any Thor/Harvath book, you can get your bottom dollar that ‘there will be blood.’ Lots of it.

When I started Thor’s latest book, I had the inkling that maybe this story line had cooled off for me. That maybe this might my last foray into the violent world of Scot Harvath.

And that would be wrong path to take. 

Thor gives the reader a (seemingly) thorough treatment of East-West geopolitics presenting reasons why Russia (the real and this fictional one) is doing what it’s doing. Hint: Chapter 37 is a succinct account on some of the reasons behind why Russia is involved with Ukraine and what the likely next steps might be. 

A chilling and frightening discussion of what the next decade might be.

So bring it on Thor. My apologies for having doubted you. Fall 2025 can’t get here soon enough.

East Coast Don

1581. Dead Fall by Brad Thor

The war in Ukraine rages on. A young idealist lawyer from Chicago resigns from her firm, buys a 1-way ticket to Poland so she can get into Ukraine and do some good. Anna Royko is of Ukrainian descent and learned about an orphanage run by some nuns too close to the front lines. That’s her destination.

Then there is the Russian paramilitary organization called the Wagner Group. They take care of things that cannot be traced back to the Kremlin. It’s not populated by stellar examples of the Russian military. They even managed to ‘recruit’ men from high security prisons and asylums. Call them Ravens and that's spelled S-C-U-M. This one group loaded with some of the worst examples of humanity was tasked with finding Ukrainian art works for transport back to Moscow. It's run by a hardass that goes by simple Colonel. Their assignment is pretty tame stuff until they come across a list of irreplaceable art and the various places where it is all stored. A little simple arithmetic reveals a cache valued well above what this mob can imagine. They kill the Russian soldiers carrying the list and set out to start their own collection. One particularly valuable assemblage is under a church . . . that serves a convent . . . that manages an orphanage. That’s their destination.

Scot Harvath and his team have just taken out the Iranian director of drone operations in a well choreographed ambush of a convoy in Belarus. All good. Bad guy is history. Time for some R&R in Poland with his Norwegian fiancé, assuming she can get some time off from her job in Norway’s security apparatus. His partner in crime, and collector of hacked information, Nicholas (aka The Troll) arrives in Poland about the same time with an assignment. An American aid worker has been taken captive by this rogue element of the rogue Wagner Group. The President can’t send in any military or ‘Agency’ spooks because the US can’t be seen as having boots on the ground. The job falls to Harvath’s employer, The Carlton Group, to give the President some deniability. Harvath is to get into Ukraine, with no weapons, no team, and the barest minimum of intelligence. Can't wait for a night with Solvi. Got to leave now. He leaves with just the promise of four western mercenaries to find/rescue Anna Royko and dispense with all the Ravens by whatever means he fells is necessary.

Harvath must secret himself across the border, grab any number of different means of transport (most such acquisitions involve the requisite gun play), try to convince locals that he is on their side to improve his limited intelligence, and develop a map of eastern Ukraine to work out the pattern behind how the Ravens have been looting and killing on top of their already growing list of war crimes. Once Harvath identifies (he hopes) their base of operations, he must set a plan in motion against an enemy that outnumbers his little group of five by upwards of 10 to 1.

Thor is a terrific writer who pens books to be topical to current geopolitical tensions. He also has a good plot pattern that his legion of fans have come to appreciate: finish off an operation, plan some R&R, get yanked back in, head in against terrible odds, find a way to finish off the bad guys, head home to his Norwegian fiance. Not sure that all his books follow that exact plan and what would it matter it all his books followed that model. His stories are believable, topical, and filled with political machinations of the best and worst on both sides to keep us all entertained.

What can I say? Another winner in a long line of winners (this is his 22^rd novel) and Thor’s far from being done. Plenty of breathless moments under crushing pressure that’ll keep you turning pages well into the darkness.

Oh, looks like I forgot to tell y'all - Thor is one of the tent poles of the Emily Bestler Books empire of thrillers. Pay attention to those publishers. 

 

ECD

#1519 Black Ice (the audio book) by Brad Thor

Black Ice, the 20^th Scott Harvath novel by Brad Thor, has already been reviewed twice in this blog, first by me in 6/21, and second by ECD in 8/21 when Black Ice was published. Please refer to those reviews in order to get a more complete sense of what this book is about. I’ve begun listening to more audiobooks while I take long dog walks, and while I did not catch the name of the reader of this book, I can tell you I was very disappointed in that effort. This book contains characters from various countries including Norway, Sweden, Russia, and the U.S. While the reader did well with Harvath’s dialogue and the basic narration of the story, the characters from other countries, whether they were men or women, were indistinguishable. In other words, Harvath’s Norwegian girlfriend sounded the same as a male Russian operative. I cannot give the audiobook a favorable rating or recommendation.

WCD 

Rising Tiger by Brad Thor

Thor’s 22^nd Scot Harvath thriller.

The main political agenda in this book is the proposal to establish a NATO-like alliance between the US, India, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, An alliance that doesn’t sit well with the Chinese.

China and India have been at each other’s throats for decades over a border dispute. The two sides have come to some unique rules of engagement that limits hostilities mostly to hand-to-hand combat. After one particularly vicious confrontation, an unknown weapon levels many of the Indian soldiers.

A helicopter carrying military bigwigs falls out of the sky over India.

Eli Ritter, a former American ‘economic development officer (and FOH – friend of Harvath) is assassinated on a crowded street in Rajasthan, India.

Harvath’s friend, colleague, and information guru, known to most as just “Nicholas” (aka The Troll) is back in Virginia with his pregnant wife minding the home fires in his secluded home off the beaten track when the house is hit with some form of a microwave attack that puts the whole family (and his security team) in the hospital. It’s not wise to mess with Harvath’s clan of friends and operatives.

India assigns Asha, an RAW (research and analysis wing) officer from their intelligence service to investigate the helicopter crash. Harvath had just concluded an assignment in Afghanistan when he is diverted to Delhi to investigate Ritter’s murder. The US embassy loans out a retired police detective on the embassy’s staff, Vijay Chabra, to help Harvath navigate the streets/politics/underworld that is India.

The two investigations are conducted in parallel with Asha and Vijay/Scot each encountering progressively more ruthless adversaries that are met with increasingly broader and more liberal interpretations of Indian laws. The two investigations meet in an alley behind a bar with each staring down the other for control of a high level perp.

It I said that this was a typical Thor/Harvath story, you might think it’s more of the same. And maybe it is, but Thor has a way of keeping the story fresh and entertaining. One way he does this is to introduce new characters and the inclusion of Asha and Vijay are some of his best yet. I sure hope that they appear in future Harvath novels. Or they get their own storyline. Never know.

Bottom line. Thor always seems to deliver, even with #22. For those new to Thor/Harvath, each book is a standalone, but it never hurts to start from the beginning with The Lions of Lucerne. You’ll get hooked and will have a long line of thrillers to keep you entertained.

BTW. When one reads a thriller series like this, the thought turns to TV/movies. While Thor has optioned most (all?) of his books, nothing has happened. When asked who he thought would be a good choice to play Harvath, Thor replied, ‘Rupert Friend.’ Look him up on IMDB. Could be. It sometimes helps to put a face with a book character.

ECD

Black Ice by Brad Thor

Most of the big time thriller heros are getting up there in age. Jack Ryan. Mitch Rapp. Scot Harvath, Bob Lee Swagger, Jack Reacher, et al. They’ve all been at it for 20+ years. And all the havoc they’ve created is showing as most seem to be more introspective and leaning towards cutting back on saving humanity from itself.

Scot Harvath has lost how many friends, girlfriends, wife (or is it wives?). In his last mission (Near Dark), he met up a Norwegian operative, Solvi Kolstad, now a Deputy Director of the Norwegian Intelligence Service. They are moving ahead with their relationship with Scot spending more and more time in Norway while he considers the Nordic way of life together. And that means making a decision: return to active duty (so to speak) or resign.

Sitting at a sidewalk café, he recognizes a man get out of a taxi that can’t be. It’s a man he knows he killed years ago. Alive and in Norway? He’s got to know. And he knows Solvi could provide vital information while he tries to track down this dead man, but in doing so, could well end Solvi’s NIS career.Surveilling citizens is as much a no-no in Norway as it is in the US.

Scot has two tasks ahead of him. Find out the identity of this guy and find out what he is doing in Oslo. But those answers are just the beginning when we learn that the Russians and the Chinese are working on something that will put a serious dent in the US’s ability to monitor polar traffic, both physical and digital.

As usual, politics come into play. Like an American operative, thought to be ‘on leave’ being activated within the borders of a friendly NATO country. And in doing so, any actions taken against what appears to be a legitimate Russian/Chinese ‘business’ could well be considered to be an act of war, especially if SEALs are involved. Any failure of the hush-hush aspects done by Harvath and his team will have enormous geopolitical repercussions. Not to mention, Norway wouldn’t be all that happy by being left out of the loop and could expel Harvath and that would kill any future he and Solvi might have.

The key element is that any action must look accidental. Man vs. Nature way north in the Arctic Circle where Nature wins.

This makes the 20^th Brad Thor thriller I’ve read. Spotted #1, The Lions of Lucerne during a random stroll through the stacks at the local library and haven’t looked back. All are first rate thrillers (OK, maybe The Athena Project was a rare misstep). One of the great things about the Harvath storyline is that Thor makes sure to take Harvath’s aging into account (something Lee Child doesn’t do as well with Jack Reacher). And in this one, Harvath spends considerable time weighing his happiness vs. his love of country. For followers of Harvath, that alone is a major plot line that will hold our interest. But the action is pretty cool, too.

Thanks to the good folks at Atria/Emily Bestler Books for the advance reader copy. Just did go on sale August 1, 2021. And don't forget to check out West Coast Don's review. Not often we review the same title.

East Coast Don

Black Ice

 

Near Dark by Brad Thor

It’s early fall and the pre-Christmas rush of new books in getting into full swing. Brad Thor’s annual contribution comes right when we all need Scot Harvath.

Near Dark begins two weeks after last year’s Backlash ended. In Backlash, his mentor, Reed Carlton, had developed Alzheimer’s Disease and to protect the treasure trove of secrets in The Old Man’s head, Harvath had sequestered Carlton in the Maine woods. At the same time, Harvath had married Lara at a time where Carleton was reasonably lucid. The small ceremony also included Lydia Ryan, a former CIA section director and new head of The Carleton Group. While all were in Maine, Russian assassins attempting to kill Harvath took out his new wife, Ryan, and Carleton.

Near Dark picks up two weeks later after Harvath has gone off the grid in the Keys to drink away his pain. Does a pretty good job. His alcohol issues plague him throughout this book. But even when drunk, he can’t help sticking his nose into other people’s business, especially when a woman is on the wrong end of an altercation. One such attempt at helping a woman under duress leads to a 2 on 1 duel in an alley. Make that 3 on 1. As the 2 thugs are working on Harvath, a third comes in ready to end Harvath’s pain. Raises his weapon and  . . . the shooter gets a few bullets to the head. Some of Harvath’s compatriots with The Carleton Group have his back.

They inform Harvath that over the past two weeks since the slaughter in Maine, an unknown benefactor put up a bounty on Harvath. $100 million. The contract doesn’t go to one killer. It’s a general announcement. First to kill gets the payment. Not to mention that Carl Pedersen, a Norwegian Intelligence Service colleague of Reed Carlton, was tortured for information about Harvath and killed the week before.

From here on, the story is about tracking backwards from the dead shooter to find out who sent the shooter, who might be the next to try, who is/are the intermediaries between the money and the triggers, and ultimately, who put up the money. Harvath is after the source of the money behind the Maine slaughter. The Norwegians are on the same trail to find out who took out Pedersen and assign one of his proteges, a recovering drug addict/agent in need of redemption to work with Harvath.

Solvi Kolstad has her own history of demons. As a teenager, she was a runway model. A stunning Nordic beauty who got a little too involved in the model lifestyle. She did get married and out of the jet set for a while  finding work with the NIS. But when her husband wanted kids and she didn’t, the hubby bolted and she went back to the drugs. Pedersen pulled her out and got her head back into the intelligence game. Backing Harvath is her first real frontline assignment since coming back. These two wounded warriors form a working alliance where their physical skills and mental dexterity complement each other.

This Thor’s 20^th Scot Harvath book, most of which were NYT best sellers. This made the 2020 best seller list simply based on pre-release orders. Harvath continues to deliver the goods. Being one of those authors who churn out a book each year, he’s got to be good and this one is no exception. While this one is short on non-stop action and long on thought and reasoning that goes with dogged investigation in no way detracts from the tension of the story. A one or two sitting read if you give it the chance.

ECD

Backlash by Brad Thor

#19 in the Scot Harvath series. 

In #18 (Spy Master), Harvath had started to assume the inevitable role as CEO of The Carleton Group because the old man, Reed Carlton, had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. And while Spy Master presented Harvath in his first attempts at running the show, he was still a field operative at heart. As Carlton's condition deteriorated, Harvath, Lara (his new wife), Lydia (a former CIA boss now Carlton CFO), and a Navy corpsman caring for Carlton have gathered up in Maine to be with Carlton where he was living out his final days. Right up to when Lara screams the last words in #18: "Run!"

#19 picks up right after Lara's plea.  Maine police come upon the house to find four corpses all murdered execution-style. Harvath is missing. Given Harvath's history, the directors of both the CIA and FBI fly in. The local cops think Harvath has gone rogue. PTSD claiming another victim, but neither director buys it.

A transport plane out of Murmansk (way the hell north in the Russian wilderness bordering Finland) has mechanical trouble and is going down hard. Passengers are a team of mercs, their boss, and a single bound, gagged, and hooded passenger. Spirited out of Maine through Canada to Russia. You know who it is. 

But the US government can't really intervene, at least not overtly, even though a Russian incursion on US soil to kill and kidnap US citizens is an act of war. That doesn't stop the FBI's Hostage Rescue director and all the forces behind The Carlton Group from doing what they can to locate and then work up a rescue plan.  

From here on, Thor takes we readers on torturous ride through the Murmansk Oblast as Harvath battles against the brutal winter weather, wolves, frozen rivers, outback towns, a commercial band of mercs (The Wagner Group), helicopter gunships, waist deep blowing snow. Each encounter worse than the previous. The entire story tells we poor schlubs what SERE training (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) by the SEALs teaches one when down behind enemy lines.

And while this is mostly a story of chase and evasion, make no bones about it, Harvath has lost three important people in his life. During the hours and days mostly alone and cold in the brutal wintry wilderness, his focus in on two things: survival and revenge. And Thor says it succinctly:  "
Revenge was bitter medicine. It didn't cure suffering. It didn't provide closure. It only hollowed you our further." When he gets out, those responsible will pay, dearly. Harvath is seriously hollowed out.

Hopefully, you all have read a bunch of Thor's books. I started in at the beginning from a casual stroll through my local library stacks and am fully up to date. 19 for 19. And here is what is impressive.
Every one is better than the previous (OK, maybe The Athena Project was a bit of a hiccup). But the development of Thor as a masterful and mature storyteller is something future thriller writers really need to study. In the absence of Clancy and Flynn, if Thor isn't the unquestioned leader of the parade of current thriller authors, he is definitely in the Top 5.

ECD

Spy Master

Spy Master is the 18^th book in the Scot Harvath series by Brad Thor, and if you’ve read any of the first 17, then you know what you’ll get. Except, this one may be Thor’s best. This book is due out the first week of July 2018, and many thanks to Atria book for this prepublication copy.

This is a cannot-put-it-down novel regarding the intent of a secret organization, that is surely Russia, to pull NATO into a war. Reed Carlton, the founder of The Carlton Group, a private government contractor that black ops – sometimes brutal ones. But Carlton is not only past his prime, he now has severe Alzheimer’s Disease and has become a liability. He can’t remember much of the history of his organization, some of which only he knew about. Now, he sometimes talks to the wrong people, so he’s become a national security risk. More often, he can’t remember information that Harvath needs to know.

Harvath has avoided moving into the head office, much like Daniel Silva has steadily developed his series about Gabriel Allon. With Carlton out of the picture, Harvath is splitting his time between the office and the field while also relying on his office partner, Lydia Ryan. If you’re a Brad Thor fan, you don’t need to know any more about the plot. If you’ve not read Thor before, start at the beginning and work your way forward. This could be a stand alone book, but if you can, start with the first book, The Lions of Lucerne.

Use of Force by Brad Thor

This year’s foray into the realm of Thor/Scot Harvath.

 

A shipload of refugees goes down in a storm off the coast of Italy. A tragedy indeed. But the chatter picked up by the governmental eavesdroppers is more about one passenger. A VIP. A chemist. And it’s not just the guy, but also his laptop and phone. The Italians Navy gets it all.

The Burning Man festival in the Nevada is targeted for a terror attack. Harvath finds his guy’s tent and plenty of bomb making stuff. He gives chase through the tent city of festival goers. The guy is in a silver mask and a floor length cap. Harvath’s 4-man team is closing in from all sides. Each has the guy in sight, but they are scattered throughout the tent city. Could it really be 5 bombers? Each man on Harvath’s team takes down the guy they see as does Harvath. But a bomb still goes off.

There was a sixth.

Harvath and his Carlton Group team are called back to DC. The laptop and phone of the chemist contain a wealth of actionable intel but not the bottom line. Chief amongst the intel is reference to a massive attack coming soon. The President, the CIA and The Charlton Group’s head (Reed Charlton) task Harvath to track down the chemists last known activities to learn what made him so important.

A pilgrim’s mass in Spain is bombed. Hundreds dead and wounded. The park and fairground outside the Louvre is hit by 4 suicide bombers on a weekend afternoon. Even more casualties.

The first place to track the chemist is the boat. It left from Libya. Using the chemist’s phone, Harvath and team learn where the phone was obtained and ‘persuade’ the seller to give up the name of who he contacted to smuggle the chemist out of the country. 

The smuggler is big time. Even has the protection of the Libyan Liberation Front, a well-trained and even better armed militia. Getting this guy did not go as planned. Harvath and friends, with the smuggler in tow, barely manage to get out.

But they do learn where the chemist was headed and who was to meet him. A regional Mafioso. Tough guy, but not so much when Harvath encourages cooperation. This Mafia sub-Don wasn’t so tough after all. Tells Harvath where and when he was to deliver the chemist.

Harvath arrives at a warehouse in Rome only to find whatever job that was underway had been completed.  Chemicals. Lots of chemicals. Everything needed to prepare Sarin gas. The bad guys had a backup plan if the chemist failed to show. And an even more deadly plan that Spain and Paris.

Thor has a legion of fans that breathlessly await his annual Scot Harvath book. Taught, tensely written. Thor's hallmarks. It’s has everything Thor’s fans drool over. Depending on one’s schedule, this could easily be read in a single setting. Thor is that good of a writer.

For the uninitiated, be forewarned. This is hard charging, fully stocked with alpha males, loaded with weapons, and graphic descriptions of ‘enha

nced interrogations.’ All that is code for this is not for the squeamish. While Thor fans nervously await each new installment, I’m betting there are an equal number who would be appalled at the violence presented and call for Thor to be muzzled.

But I don’t think Harvath would like that too much.

ECD