Spoilers, sort of!
I’ve always been a fan of the political thriller. Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series hit me at the same time I was binging Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, and I loved it. It’s all insane plotting, of course, but so much fun! In other words, I have a hard time imagining any of the main plot points actually occurring in real life, but that’s what fiction is all about, and I love the poster children, if you will, for stories like that, such as Mitch Rapp, or Brad Thor’s character, Scot Harvath. Harvath is introduced by Thor in his debut book, 2002’s The Lions of Lucerne. Shoot, I just realized Thor would’ve written his debut novel when he was younger than I am currently. And now that I think about it, this was my first Thor book. He’s one of those names I’ve seen forever at bookstores and libraries, and I own a few of his books, but I’d never actually read any of them until now. I also was probably conflating him with Brad Meltzer, whose books I haven’t read either, but I did read Identity Crisis by him, which was phenomenal.
To the book! The president goes skiing with his daughter, and they get separated while returning back to the cabin. In that instance, a bunch of Swiss mercenaries (Swiss!) fashioning themselves the “Lions of Lucerne,” kill the president’s Secret Service detail, and kidnap the president. Through a series of ruses, they’re able to whisk him away to Switzerland and hide him on a mountain (where they make it seem like he’s in the Middle East to blame Islamic fundamentalists for the kidnapping). They even are crafty enough to make it seem like Harvath is responsible for it all as the inside man, leading him to go on the run to clear his name and still save the president. It wouldn’t be a main character in a political action thriller if the plot didn’t necessitate them going rogue.
What’s remarkable about a scenario where 30 Secret Service agents are killed by hostile foreign actors and the American president is kidnapped on American soil is that 9/11 is canon within this story, i.e., imagine 9/11 occurring and the next year, the president is kidnapped. That would be madness. But what’s so interesting about Thor’s conceptualization of the kidnapping and plot is that, as I mentioned, Swiss and American traitors are behind the actions, not actual Islamic fundamentalists (although one does play a role in the initial kidnapping, but only to unwittingly play patsy). That said, I did think the motive was rather weak for the American traitors — an American businessman, two Senators, and a high up man in the Secret Service — because their motive was money, of course, and to ensure the president’s alternative energy bill, which ostensibly would’ve been costly to those in favor of fossil fuels, would not pass. Then again, the real life former vice president was nearly killed for less. But I digress.
Scot’s character was a mix of Spider-Man and for my closest comparison, Jack Reacher: righteousness and resourceful mixed with confident machismo, and of course, Spider-Man’s wise-cracking sarcasm. Even in dire situations, Scot was cracking jokes, which goes back to the confident machismo aspect. Actually, Jack Reacher does that, too, so perhaps I’m being redundant. He was a fun character, as was his Swiss help and eventual lover, Claudia, who was working to take down the Swiss mercenaries behind the kidnapping. She was integral to the rescue of the president! See, even American cowboys need help.
With any book that’s nearly 600 pages (mass market paperback edition), with few exceptions, one of my minor critiques will always be that it could’ve been shorter. Thor flexes a lot of research knowledge on some of the scenes to go into greater detail, which slowed down the action and forward motion of the plot — that is, the five-alarm urgency that the president was kidnapped! — but overall, I enjoyed Thor’s first outing with his main character. Scot was relentless in his pursuit of not just the truth of what happened, costs be damned, but returning the president to America, ideally unharmed. One small note on that because I can’t help myself: Obviously, I don’t think anyone has gamed out a scenario of a president returning to the presidency after being kidnapped, but I find it unlikely! Primarily because you couldn’t be sure if he or she is compromised now, i.e., making decisions based upon the kidnapping experience. Right?
If you’re in the mood for a political thriller with high-stakes action, and a fun setting largely within snow, mountains, and Switzerland, then I recommend Thor’s debut book.
Milam's Musings 