Easy read

I found that Brad Thor is very thorough and does a lot of homework when he writes a book about espionage and terrorism very very interesting recommended to read

Amazing. If you like James Bond thriller this is right up your alley.

Adventurous, challenging, hopeful, informative, 
inspiring, mysterious, reflective, sad and tense.
medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25 Stars

This is the second book in the series. I loved his introduction, and in this story...we get to know more about how he ticks. The next story will broaden his world and lean more on his talents.

Scot Harvath is extremely capable, but in this story...he is paired with a civilian that is being USED by the CIA and he comes to her aide, but also learns to admire her. She really isn't a damsel in distress. She's capable of great things.

The story itself is a tough one. The Jewish people against the Muslim people...and their radical elements within each. I was worried that it would fall on one side and leave the other story untold, but within this story, he (Brad Thor) was able to tell both sides of the story, but also expose both sides about their prejudices. By the end, it was personal story and heartfelt, though misguided.

I am really excited to read the next book. Now, I just have to wait for it...Brad Thor's books are a great draw at our local library...it seems.

There's still a lot wrong with this second outing, but there's quite possibly more right than there was last time. Still too much "me too!", but there are some signs of an actual Brad Thor personality coming through. And both Thor and Harvath need a win in Path of the Assassin, after the fairly amateurish debacle (writing and character) of the first book, Lions of Lucerne. Mainly because after that one, I’m really struggling to take seriously Harvath as the the highly-trained, skilled, killer that he supposedly is here in book two.

It doesn't start well. As, when Thor writes: “For Scot Harvath, anything other than total success was not an option.” I'm thinking "unless you’re protecting the fucking President, of course!" (If you haven't read the first book, it starts with Harvath being on the security team that allowed the President of the USA to be kidnapped from under their noses). Though I think that there may be a recognition that the first book went wrong at the start, as this one does seem to gloss over the previous book. As I said at the start, he is beginning to put things right as he does at least mention the incident, which is good.

Unfortunately, he does seem to feel the need to fall back on cheap thriller cliches. The women - those with speaking parts - are 'unbelievably beautiful.' Each one he meets ratchets up 'the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen' level. If this keeps up, by the tenth novel Harvath's trousers are gonna explode! If he's still alive, that is. And being American, there is this need to continually go one better; opponents, apparently, find Harvath “to be extremely lethal”? As you and I know, there aren’t grades of lethal. Unless you're an American thriller writer. If you are, there seem to be several as yet undiscovered higher levels of lethal. The rest of us know you're either lethal, or not. Just like you can't be a 'little bit' pregnant, see?

The schoolboy errors in the writing are unfortunately equally matched (again) by schoolboy errors in the plot, and/or Harvath's character/SEAL abilities. Surely...for example, in the casino, at the start, when they see the target and their 'plant'. They recognise that the assassin had injured, possibly killed, their plant. They run towards where he is and the target was. And both of them stop to see how their plant is. After several minutes, when they’re sure he is ok, they ask "where did he go? How do we find him now?" Well, one of you morons should have gone after the guy, while the other, moron 2, if necessary, stopped to help the plant! Schoolboy error! Then, as far as I could tell, Harvath’s main interrogation technique is just to repeat the last thing the other guy says! ..."I'm gonna blow up something and not tell you what." "You're gonna blow something up and not tell me what?" "OK, you win Harvath, I'm gonna blow this..." Harvath needs to shape up and fast, or he's gonna be a distant second, third, or last, to Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp. Actually, it isn't a contest at the moment, as Rapp is by far the better written character. I say that as I see from several American thriller sites, that Thor and Flynn, Harvath and Rapp are mentioned as being equally compulsive. They're not.

However, there are grounds for optimism. As long as he drops the James Bond film-like product placement - Nike. Five Guys. And for fuck's sake, Fox News. If that last one gets mentioned again, I'm done. However, there are mentions of an opinion on Islam, a positive one, which I didn’t expect. So maybe it turns out that the book and Thor are maybe a lot more balanced than I expected. The story, 6th Form Schoolboy SEAL training problems aside, is pretty good - similar to Mitch Rapp in a way as well, in that the first few Rapp stories are him seeking revenge for Lockerbie, here Harvath is seeking revenge for the President's kidnapping. Not, the 'revenge' rather than 'justice,' there's no "we'll let the courts decide" in the Rapp/Harvath universe. And, as I always think, is it enough to get me reading the next one. it's a yes it is. So it must be OK at the very least.

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A fantastic book that I simply couldn’t put down.

Enjoy it as part of the series or on its own. An easy and enjoyable read.


If I never see the word facade again it will be too soon!

Brad Thor is creating a story line that is identical to Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series. One problem: While I fully admit Mitch Rapp is the ultimate male "ultra-masculine, ultra-heroic fantasy".....not believable but great entertainment. The Path of the Assassin is not only unbelievable....it makes the crossing to the patently absurd. The heroine in this story swings in near manic-depressive cycles between frightened grief and incredible female bravado; from tears of fear to a machine gun toting anti-terrorist agent. I am not sure why I finished such a ridiculous book. I think I will stick to the just unbelievable Mitch Rapp and totally enjoy the experience.....leaving the ridiculous, amateurish plot lines to Brad Thor.

Ok for a action boot, I guess, but don’t expect a lot of depth.

I found this to be extremely stereotypical. This could easily be any big budget action movie with too much CGI (I’m looking at you Michael Bay), complete with an assassin tries to kill them on motorcycle, hero steals a civilians motorcycle, gives chase, and they both find speed boats with the keys in them scene.

The author also tries to make the hero seem witty but the hero just comes across as an a****** to me. I found myself wishing for the book to end.

The hero just happens to find everything he needs exactly when he needs it.

Read the first in the series and thought I’d give this one a chance. Father-in-law loves this series and I’m not sure how... wont be reading the others.

Just total non-stop action, with just enough misdirection to keep you on your toes. Harvath continues to amaze with his no-nonsense approach, and the plot is all too frighteningly plausible.

I listened to the audio version of this book. I enjoyed the second book in the Scott Harvath series, but it was not quite as much as the first book, the Lions of Lucerne. There is a new terrorist group called the hand of God with ties to Israel, and they are taking out Palestinians. Tensions in the Middle East are high. Meanwhile, Scott Harvath is tracking down the last member of the Lions of Lucerne, but he is killed by an anonymous assassin with silver eyes. Scott now is after the assassin and ends up chasing a whole lot more.

There was a good amount of action in this book as well as numerous locals around the world. It was interesting to see how Scott worked with the CIA on this mission as well as how his feelings about the CIA change slightly as the book went on.

Overall an above average thriller that is action packed. If you are a fan of thrillers you will enjoy this novel.

Propaganda-porn.

The violence is disgusting.

The logic-defying sanctification of anything Israel does is disgusting.
The normalization of the allegedly "patriotic" American pattern of kill-to-make-the-world-a-better-place sickens me.

The fact that public libraries spend taxpayer money on this pornography is disgusting.

The writing/plotting/dialog/arc are all boilerplate: Thor and his colleagues in the CIA-FBI-etc. managed propaganda porn division work from a Chinese menu.

I read these books for the same reason investigators examine crime scenes, and occasionally envy them their assessment of the life-cycle of maggots.

Always entertaining

I enjoy the main character Scott Harvath.