Near Dark

For the first time I can remember I have quit reading a book, half-way through; I just never do that in hopes it\’ll get better. So: we have our hero, admittedly suffering severe grief, deep in an alcoholic fog. But wait–even drinking heavily every day, mentally and physically out of shape, Our Hero at 40% function is superior to anybody else (yes, it actually said that). So off he goes on a very tricky, dangerous mission–even riskier than usual!–because, you know, Our Hero can\’t be controlled; he\’s gonna do it anyhow because … well, that\’s just him, right? And he keeps on drinking heavily!! So we have pages and pages–not exaggerating here–of his ruminating about his grief, his life, his need for revenge. Personally, I read for enjoyment and alcoholics don\’t do it–that\’s \’dark\’ you see? The hero chain-smokes, drinks heavily, marital problems, etc. I\’ll pass and you should, too.

I normally look forward to Brad Thors\’ Harvath series, but lately they just seem to be getting more boring and slower. My favorite character has been Nicholas, but unfortunately he was made a good guy and I always felt he was better as an antagonist for Harvath (though was still nice to see him in this book). But, this book has so much backstory there is even backstory about the backstory, sometimes you are not sure if you are reading what is happening now or if you are still reading backstory. There is no real action until near the end, but by then you have almost lost interest. Do not let the five star \”non-stop\” action reviews fool you (if you read many of them you can tell they just mostly copied the description). This series used to be very engrossing and hard to put down, always looked forward to the next book lately though, not so much. Hopefully it will improve with the next book, but might take some convincing for me to make the purchase.

Brad Thor\’s newest is not his best. He puts Scott Horvath in the unenviable position of having lost his wife and mentor in the last installment; trying to drink away the pain in Florida; and then vicious Russians put a one hundred million dollar bounty on his head, payable to the one who kills Scott. Fortunately, what\’s left of Scott\’s team find him, and saves him from one of the bounty hunters who actually has the jump on him in an inebriated condition. Then we learn that one of his closest associates in Norway was murdered in order to get info on Scott. Both Thor and Scott will not let that stand, neither will the Carlton Group with Nicholas now running things. This book, from the way too obvious scene where Scott is saved in Key West, is one long continuation of chase the bad guys, find the bad guys, kill the bad guys in order to get to the next set of bad guys. Finally, of course, Scott and company, now with the addition of the beautiful Solvi from the Norwegian Secret Service helping the team, find the penultimate bad guys and (surprise)… kill them. Mission complete. Ultimately, Solvi awakens Scott\’s dormant emotional impulses and perhaps his bodily needs. My problem with this is that the plot line is so thinly disguised. Then there\’s the over abundance of explanatory material and background, which most of the time seems like filler rather than necessary detail. Lastly, Thor seems to make it a point to violate one of the thriller author\’s cardinal rules: show it, don\’t talk about it, such as: Scott needed to figure a way out of this situation, and quick! Glad to finish this one and get on to something more solid and better written.

Ive read all 19 books in the series, so I felt confident purchasing this one. Chapter 11 made me stop and post this review, something I would normally never do without finishing the book. The writing here is slow, dry and boring; lots of exposition, more like historical non-fiction than a rollicking action thriller. *Edited to add – devolving into laughably bad. A travel agent who cant take wet work during the busy season? Last Thor book Ill ever buy (wish I could get a refund!).

This is the first Brad Thor book I had to struggle to finish. The first half of the book was about Scots being nothing but a drunk and that isnt very entertaining. Also, I think he set a record for the F word in the book and that isnt necessary. I spent a lot of time just skimming through pages after page of Scot taking a shower or getting ready to go out. I always pre order his books but I think this is it for me. Really hard to even give it two stars.

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