Another entertaining story in this series. Yes a lot of it is on the unbelievable side but this is fiction after all. I read to escape reality because quite frankly reality sucks right now!!!! On to the next one.

I'm betting if author Brad Thor was asked, if he could do over one of his books, it would be "Path of the Assassin". You have some real good elements in this one, that's intertwined with fluff, needless characters and total BS from the author.

It wouldn't start with the same opening of Scot Harvath involved in a chase during a hurricane and being able to identify the mercury like gray eyes of a driver racing towards him. Having lived through enough hurricanes to know that it's impossible to do, let alone would you have the amount of people out acting like nothing was happening and especially with a category 5 baring down on them.

You also have a character being Morrell, along with his team that easily could be eliminated, been better that Harvath had a team of four guys, kept much of the story, just tweak it to add a Mossad agent or two to the mix and have Meg's character be an Egyptian El Amn El Watani agent.

His own writing of the main character Harvath makes the reader realize you have an enormous amount of needless writing being done, easily could have pared it down and he isn't clever enough too make you realize by the eye color that it's a women they are tracking.

A not bad second book in a series. I think Scot has found his niche :) I really like Meg and I am hoping she is not dumped in the 3rd book as Claudia was in this one (or will there be a new "James Bond" girl in each book???). Some of the action is so extreme is seems to be glossed over.

"To tell the truth, Father, I don't think God has a favorite football team, or a favorite religion."
Something to think about...

As a big fan of Vince Flynn, a friend recommended Brad Thor to me. This is the second book about Scot Harvath, former Navy SEAL, currently Secret Service Agent. After having rescued the President in the first book, he is now tracking down the last of the members of the group responsible, an assassin beats him to his target. A new chase is on to find this assassin, only recognizable by then strange color of his eyes. This son of a dead terrorist is trying to light the Middle East on fire and Scott is forced to work with a nemesis at the CIA and a beautiful civilian who has been pulled into the chase. Chasing the silver eyed assassin around the globe, Scott must stop him. The book is a non stop page turner. However, I did not like that the author propagated the lie that there was ever a Arab Palestinian nation.

The true start of Scot Harvath's ascent to super-spy stardom.
Harvath tracks down the assassin that teamed with the Lions of Lucerne. His travels take him from Macao to Libya to Italy.
Action, adventure, and much more as well as the blossoming of love.

This book was disappointing. I thought that the writing and scene development would evolve from the first book. I rolled my eyes when Harvath was able to identify an assassin’s silver eyes at night, at any distance, when the assassin was speeding in a sports car in a hurricane. Also, it’s simply not realistic that the government agencies would have involved a civilian as depicted and that she would have become accomplished at a wide range of activities in a two week training period. She dumbly endangered the team when deployed in a way that was not realistic. I also find it hard to believe that a terrorist supposedly so hard to track would have made some stupid mistakes of using sentimental plates giving away favourite locations and arguing with a sibling in front of the captives, who were treated pretty decently by the way. Additionally, I rolled my eyes again later in the book when Harvath fired twice with a gun and took down a terrorist (chest and head shots) but he and the civilian managed to “dodge the hail of bullets” from the other terrorists’ automatic weapons, at relatively short range. Ugh.

Fast paced action book. Need to read book #1 to help with some of the references. I plan to continue reading in this series.

James Bond meets Mission Impossible!! A great edge-of-your-seat action packed thriller!

Path of the Assassin is the sequel and follow-up to Thor's debut novel, The Lions of Lucerne. Former SEAL and Secret Service operative Scot Harvath is on the trail of the culprits who were involved in the kidnapping of the President. While he is hot on their trail, it points to a large Terrorist Organization known as The Hand of God, who are unleashing attacks across the globe. With the assistance of a CIA hit-team, Harvath has no idea who what their man looks like, so they recruit a young civilian Meg Cassidy, who has survived one of the many terrorist attacks, and has seen the face of their leader. Harvath and Meg team up, travelling across the globe, from North Africa, Libya, to Rome, Italy, to stop a madman bent on world domination.

An entertaining thriller, the action sequences were pretty far-fetched but it made the book more enjoyable! And I found Harvath's dry sense of humor, and no-nonsense attitude entertaining as well!

Taking Down Hashim and Adara Nidal. A mysterious jihadist group Hand of God claims responsibility for a number of terror attacks on the muslim world, bringing the MidEast to the brink of war against Isreal when Harvath is tasked to team up with the CIA to takedown a hijacked United 747 that is being held hostage with 300+ pasengers at Cairo's new airport. Meg Cassidy, a passenger and PR consultant organizer of the new route between United's hub in Chicago and Cairo, thwarts a rape attempt by Hashim Nidal, the terrorist leader, and leads the retaking of the plane and killing of the terrorists. During the simultaneous takedown by the CIA strike team, Harvath overcomes intergovernmental SNAFUs and secures the plane with minimal casualties to passengers, but the hijack leaders escape the net. Scot and Meg begin a close partnership that continues thru her CIA paramilitary training, as he has become critical to US counterterror efforts as she is the only person who has seen Hashim Nidal's face. Acting on intel, the strike team heads to Libya and does a 30 minute parachute drop to the desert to interdict Hashim at his desert base. Scot and Meg are captured and wined by Hashim's sister Adara, making available key clues that lead to the ultimate takedown outside of Rome.

Book Review - “Path of the Assassin” is Brad Thor's #2 Scot Harvath novel and it is really good! Thor continues to develop the characters, especially Harvath from the first book, “Lions of Lucerne.” In this espionage novel, Harvath leads a CIA paramilitary team that goes after a team of terrorists. It’s a great espionage thriller, but all of Brad Thor's novels are. I have read the entire Scott Harvath series and even though this was only the second book in the series, it’s one of the better action-packed of the now twenty plus Scot Harvath books. It’s right on par with the rest of the series with unrelenting action, ‘what next’ intrigue and all around enjoyable reading! I found myself cheering and laughing out loud throughout this entire book. It is also good to get some of the back stories filled in and being made aware of new characters that follow in the series. I loved the intertwining, the give-and-take of the storyline and the suspenseful conclusion. Thor’s storytelling seems to take the reader into the plot as if you were actually ‘watching’ it before your very own eyes. This is a fast and fun story with heavy emphasis on ‘intriguing espionage.’ It’s everything you expect from Brad Thor and well worth a read.

Scot Harvath is a Secret Service agent who has another mission: that of hunting down the world's most ruthless terrorist. In his last mission, Scot rescued the President of the United States after he was kidnapped. The kidnapping was a most diabolical plot. Now Scot's mission is to find, capture or kill all those were responsible for the plot.

Scot prepares to close the list. And there is one name left, that of the worst terrorist in the world. The only problem is that no one knows what the terrorist looks like. Scot is now working with a CIA team.

The group is forced to recruit a civilian. She has survived a horrific hi-jacking of a plane in Cairo. Her name is Meg Cassidy, owner of a public relations agency in Chicago. She has flown with a delegation to mark United Airlines' new nonstop route from Chicago to Cairo. All has gone well with the trip until the plane lands in Cairo. Then a group of terrorist hijackers take over the plane, holding it up for ransom.

Scot and the CIA team take off immediately for Cairo and to rescue the passengers and crew. Meg sees the face of the male hijacker. Because of this, she is recruited to join their team, to help take down the terrorists. Scot is brought in to get Meg to join the team. She reluctantly agrees. And rigorous training ensues for her.

The team heads to the deserts of North Africa when it is reported that the terrorist is in that area. A lot of action happens in that effort. And the action does not stop as the next area where the terrorists are located happens to be in Rome.

A lot of exciting action and Scot does not disappoint. Looking forward to the next in the series.

Read the full review at my site Digital Amrit

So many took civilization for granted without realizing that it was birthed and maintained at the point of a sword. Someone needed to hold that sword and even, on occasion, swing it in order to stave off chaos.

Introduction
‘Path of the Assassin’ is written by Brad Thor. It is the second book in the ‘Scot Harvath’ series. It is an action thriller and it stars the eponymous ‘Scot Harvath’.

Recommendation
‘Path of the Assassins’ is a disappointment in a lot of ways. I found the plot to be rambling and the character development to be poor, when compared to ‘The Lions of Lucerne’.

The vulnerability that Scot Harvath displays in ‘The Lions of Lucerne’ is not present here. He starts resembling the alpha male action hero stereotype. There is even a standard ‘ugly’ guy whom we can hate.

Brad Thor’s treatment of women characters continues to be great. Both the female support characters are well drawn out as is their struggle to be recognized in independent male dominated professions/cultures.

There is a lot more racism this time around. The middle-east is caricatured and most of the incidents are a redneck’s wet dream come true.

Overall, ‘Path of the Assassin’ was not as satisfying as ‘The Lions of Lucerne’. I found it to be Mack Bolanesque at times. Avoid it if you can.

Read the full review at my site Digital Amrit