With Full Black, you know what you are getting. Look at that cover.
The main character, Scott Horvath, is an ex-Navy Seal Team 6 member, now a covert counterterrorism operative heading Black Ops teams outside of the range of the CIA. More than undercover - off the radar of any organization. It looked like a dark and intriguing thriller with a heavy dose of solid action, and it delivered.
It begins with a team of Russian Spetsnatz agents hired by the Russian mafia, breaking into a big Hollywood mogul's LA home to kill him and get ahold of documentary he was working on. Meanwhile, Scot Horvath is heading up a shadow team on a mission so sensitive, it simply doesn't exist. They begin by staking out a Muslim Jihadist cell in Sweden who are poised to begin bombing several big business headquarters in America.
There is a larger picture, involving an American billionaire with a radical anti-America agenda funding terrorist training camps in China, and using Chinese funds to bring about an economic collapse on a global scale, including the complete wipeout of all finances and communications.
The plot was fast paced and without much diversion; it started with a bang and kept on going. Scot's team are mainly ex-Navy, ex-Army and while he works outside of the system, he has intel from the major players. I expected a lot of right wing politics, as these books go, but I didn't find it irritating. I see other readers of Brad Thor like his earlier less political books, but for me it was just action and I didn't take it too seriously.
Unlike the leads of many thriller stories, he is not a gourmet cook, doesn't have much time to romance international beauties, and hasn't an outlandishly adventurous name, like Dash Kentucky. Of course, he does live in a 4000sq. ft., 18th century stone church on several acres overlooking the Potomac. But that's normal, right? He's a no nonsense hero who knows how to achieve his goal, without complaining. When the going gets tough, just pop another Motrin and chug a Red Bull.
There were so many twists involving so many countries it was a little over the top, but it was a real page-turner and that's what you are looking for in a thriller novel. At the same time I was reading Full Black, I picked up the latest Jason Bourne novel, which are now being written by Eric Lustbader. It was so technical and dry, the action didn't build and involve me in the way Brad Thor presented. I had to put it down.
If you are looking for dynamite action, with great characters, the Scot Horvath series was a surprise for me. I've just read another and I'd recommend Brad Thor for solid thrills.
2011 / Paperback / 496 pages
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