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