Foreign Influence by Brad Thor

A super secret Chinese installing in Mongolia is hit. Who did it? Just what was the installation? How did anyone find out about it?

Scot Harvath, ex-Seal, former go-to guy in the war against terrorism to the previous adminstration has been cast aside by the new kinder and gentler POTUS. He bides his time up in Maine with Tracy, a former operative who understands Scot's need to stay in the game and protect America. One thing gets in their way - he wants kids, she doesn't and that places their relationship in jeopardy. And that love of children and the seething hatred for anyone who would put children in harm's way burns in Harvath's patriotic flame. Gasoline has been thrown on this flame when Harvath's team rescues a group of kidnapped Iraqi children, getting them all alive, except for one child who dies in his arms.

Harvath is recruited to join the shadowy Carlton Group. A group whose motto is Find, Fix, Finish. No rules, just get the job done. The Carlton Group is funded out of a non-existent DoD budget line.

A busload of American college kids doing a semester abroad in Rome is blown up. The clues suggest The Troll, a secretive source for state secrets to the highest bidder that Harvath has a love-hate relationship with. His orders from The Old Man of the Carlton Group (aka 'Peaches' to the Brits) are to find The Troll and eliminate him.

But The Troll is being set up. He reaches out to Harvath to help him find who is behind the bombing and an attempt on his own life. The chase takes Harvath and The Troll from Basque Country in Spain to Geneva where some enhanced interrogation by Harvath uncovers information about a 9/11 scale attack set to happen soon.

In Chicago, a girl is run down by a taxi and is clinging to life. Her parents aren't happy with the CPD investigation and gets a cop/lawyer/Marine to use his own time to find the driver. He and a smart mouth cop who works in transportation track miniscule cues and uncover a mosque that doubles as an armory that appears to be preparing for something big.

Harvath learns (remember, enhanced interrogation) that London and Amsterdam are the targets. With the help of Scotland Yard and MI6, they (barely) manage to avert disaster in London and jump over to Amsterdam where they zero in on the terror cell's leader, and after extracting significant information (ahem, enhanced interrogation) manage to capture 5 of 6 suicide bombers who were planning a hit on the red light district. The 6th on managed to detonate.

Part of the information Harvath extracted is about further bombings to take place in Chicago. Harvath hops a Gulfstream and his team heads for the local cell's headquarters. They encounter the 2 cops investigating the hit and run (now prisoners of the terrorists) and take out most of the cell in a shootout in the basement of a furniture store.

They piece together the remaining information they have a realize that hotels on the Magnificent Mile are not the targets, but the commuter train stations are. So the team fans out to the stations. In a horrific shootout, the attacks are stopped. But there is still intel out there suggesting potential targets in LA and NYC.

I had this on a 1-week checkout from the library and had to read it quickly. No problem there. Thor has a real talent for keeping eyes on the page and the pages turning. There is hardly a single scene that drags. And if you have a problem reading graphic descriptions of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' that probably make Abu Ghraib or Gitmo sound like summer camp, you might be wise to look elsewhere for a summer beach read. 'Graphic' is far too gentle a term to describe what is portrayed.

I'm up to date on Thor's novels and I think each title is better than the previous. In this story, he unveils a new team of operatives that simply have to become a regular feature of future books. And at the end of the story, have we just been introduced to a new character set to partner up with Harvath? Remember the name Sean Chase. He sounds like one very cool customer.

I have read that Thor has spent significant time with soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan at forward position. I would guess that some of the horror in this book is from conversations with the boots on the ground soldiers over there. And it probably helps to lean toward the political right to enjoy this book. Thor manages to get a lot of digs in about people who lean the other way.

East Coast Don

p.s. that Chinese installation? Think 'The Charm School' by Nelson DeMille (one of the very best espionage books ever written). I am betting graduates of the Chinese version of The Charm School will surface in the future. The Chinese appear to be up to no good.