Book Review: Scot Is Not That Kind Of Apostle

The Apostle is an antiterrorist geopolitical thriller by Brad Thor. Thor has a series that features counterterrorist operative Scot Harvath. Now this is the first time I have tried a Brad Thor novel, but I for some reason did not get the introductory one for this series.

Scot Harvath is engaged by the US president to trade a captured al-Qaeda terrorist for an American hostage who happens to be the daughter of a media mogul who was quite helpful to the recent presidential campaign. Harvath does not mind helping a lady in distress, but he does have some reservations about releasing terrorists, the very sort of people he has spent his life hunting down. What Scot does not know is that the president has a secret scandal that could be exposed by an intrepid Secret Service agent, and that his mission may have some dire political consequences along with the threat of his violent demise.

Well, Thor has been writing about this character and in this genre for quite a while. I have read one or two other authors in this field of literature as well. I may have to try out some of his other novels to get a better feel, but I did not find anything too extraordinary here. I did find that it was engaging and entertaining enough for me to not regret spending time with Mr. Harvath. It probably would have been better to start at the beginning of the series, but there wasn’t a whole lot I felt I was missing out on. The subplot of the secret service agent who started investigating the death of some woman who had been visiting President Arden was pretty interesting. I wouldn’t mind if Agent Elise Campbell were to resurface in later novels. Thor actually doesn’t really have Campbell and Harvath cross paths directly in this one, which was a rather interesting decision to make here.

Thor writes a satisfactory novel but nothing that keeps me hungry for more. Although since I do enjoy this genre and did not get completely turned off or frustrated by The Apostle, I will still likely catch up with Scot Harvath fairly soon.

It has been a while since I have dropped in the twenty-fourth century, so I think a Star Trek: Voyager novel will be the next port of call. Kirsten Beyer adds to the ongoing saga of the Starship Voyager with her latest installment entitled To Lose The Earth.