“The First Commandment” by Brad Thor

Genre: Thriller

Rating: 3 Water Towers

The action picks up in “The First Commandment” where it left off in “Takedown”.

Scot Harvath is in the hospital taking care of Tracy when his boss Gary Lawlor visits with some news on the attack on Tracy. Some of the blood smeared on Scot’s door was lambs blood and it contained a radioactive substance. Scot wants to hunt down the person responsible but Gary says he can’t and after a visit to the White House…..President Rutledge says the same thing.

Scot is not to get involved. Period.

Six months before the attack on Tracy five prisoners were released from Guantanamo. These five were known terrorists and were guaranteed freedom by the U.S.A. even though “The First Commandment” of terrorism is to never deal with a terrorist. The U.S. did, and it is backfiring big time.

One of the released prisoners is on a quest to kill relatives and friends of Scot’s. After making Scot suffer all these losses…….he will kill Scot. Good luck with that….

Luckily, Scot does not listen to the President (not a good thing to do by the way) and starts hunting down those who he knows were released (and he suspects of being the killer). He was given the list of four prisoners that were released by the Troll….notice I said four. The Troll kept one person off the list for reasons you will find out when you read the book. Unfortunately, this is the killer.

As the attacks against Scot’s friends and family continue, Scot tracks down the prisoners and does away with them one by one. This puts President Rutledge in an awkward position since he promised safe passage for the prisoners to keep a terrorist attack of unimaginable horror from happening….ooops, way to go Scot. (But then again…you never deal with a terrorist.)

President Rutledge decides that Scot needs to be stopped…dead or alive.

Scot is branded a traitor, and is being chased by his old friend Rick Morrell and his band of Special Ops soldiers. The action intensifies as Scot races to find the killer before he commits the final act of revenge on Scot’s ex-girlfriend Meg Cassidy.

Although I enjoyed “The First Commandment” it is not, in my opinion, up to par for Brad Thor. The reason for letting the prisoners go is weak and trusting a known felon (the Troll) is something Scot Harvath would never let happen. There are other issues that were bothersome for me, but, maybe I’m being an overly critical engineer.

This much I can say: When the action begins in earnest, Brad Thor shines, leaving the reader ready for the next book in the series “The Last Patriot” which hit the Book Stores on July 1st.

“Takedown” by Brad Thor

Genre: Thriller

Rating: 4 Water Towers

Sit in your favorite chair to read Takedown. But, before you start, strap on a seatbelt and pull it tight, because the next time you will be able to relax is after the very last word in the book: dead.

“Takedown” is a rousing, violent, epic adventure filled with all the excitement a Thriller reader expects….and more.

As “Takedown” begins, al-Qaeda master bombmaker, Mohammed bin Mohammed (M&M) is taken into custody, and held in New York City, by black suited special agents of the United States. The loss of M&M to al-Qaeda’s future plans is devastating and they want him back.

Al-Qaeda sends Abdul Ali to meet with a person with access to information second only to the most advanced intelligence agencies, The Troll, to ask for help planning an attack on New York City to get M&M back.

We first meet up with our hero, Scot Harvath – ex-Navy SEAL and now special agent for Homeland Securities Office of International Investigative Assistance aka the Apex Project- in Canada taking another suspected al-Qaeda bombmaker, Sayed Jamal, into custody.

After successfully completing this task, Scot travels to New York City to visit an old friend, Bob Herrington, an ex-Ranger just back from Afghanistan who is undergoing treatment for injuries sustained while there. Meeting in a bar, they watch the news on TV and decide that something is happening that no one quite realizes yet. They leave the bar, which is in Times Square, and head to the VA Hospital.

But before they get there all heck breaks loose.

Several bridges and tunnels are blown up killing thousands and effectively isolating NYC from the world. Helicopters and boats are shot down or sunk so no reinforcements can come in.

It turns out, Abdul Ali and an elite force of Chechen special forces have started implementing The Trolls brilliant plan to recover M&M. The plan includes entering each of the 5 top secret U.S. Government intelligence gathering locations to find M&M starting with the least heavily fortified and progressing one by one to the most difficult. Unbeknownst to Ali who is simply looking for M&M, the Chechen leader, working with The Troll, are also stealing U.S. intelligence as they make their way through the locations.

With Manhattan sealed off from the world the task of finding and stopping the terrorists falls on Scot, Bob, and three of Bob’s VA hospital buddies all of whom are ex-military special operations.

The action proceeds at rip roaring speed as Scot and his band of military special ops people chase the terrorists through the streets of New York. The cost is high for the U.S., for Scott, and for the band of ragtag hero’s.

The ending to “Takedown” is one of the best (most shocking and surprising) I have ever read. You will have to read it to see what I mean.

I have read all of Brad Thor’s books but had gotten a bit behind. I am now almost caught up and am looking forward to reading how the story continues in “The First Commandment”.

If you want to start this series read “The Lions of Lucerne” a tremendous book filled with plenty of action and vivid details of Switzerland.

Being ex-Navy myself……Go Navy!

Here is a video clip of Brad Thor being interviewed by FOX News about "Takedown":