Foreign Influence: A Thriller (Scot Harvath) [Hardcover]

Brad Thor (Author)

Book Description

Series: Scot Harvath | Publication Date: June 29, 2010

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author

Navy SEAL turned covert operative Scot Harvath is called to action once again in Brad Thor’s hottest political thriller yet.

  Buried within the black ops budgets of the Department of Defense, a new spy agency has been created.  Unfettered by the oversight of self-serving politicians, it reports only to a secret panel of military insiders.  Its job is to target America’s enemies - both foreign and domestic - under a charter of three simple words: Find, Fix, and Finish.

 

Recruited as a field operative, Scot Harvath has just returned from his first assignment abroad when a bombing in Rome kills a group of American college students. The evidence points to a dangerous colleague from Harvath’s past and a plan for further attacks on an unimaginable scale. 

 

Harvath is tasked with leveraging his relationship to lure the man out of hiding and kill him on the spot.  But what if it is the wrong man?

 

Simultaneously, a young woman is struck by a taxi in a hit-and-run in Chicago.  With only two intoxicated witnesses and over five thousand cabs in the city, the Chicago Police have given up on their investigation.  But when the family’s attorney digs deeper, he will uncover a shocking connection to the bombing in Rome and the perpetrators’ plans for America.

 

As the story rockets to its conclusion, the plots intersect in a race to prevent one of the most audacious and unthinkable acts of war in the history of mankind.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Thor's formulaic ninth Scot Harvath thriller (after The Apostle), the ex–navy SEAL has lost his job with the disbanding under a new presidential administration of the Apex Project, a Department of Homeland Security secret antiterrorist program that didn't worry about obeying any rules. Fortunately, Harvath lands on his feet with the Carlton Group, funded covertly by the Department of Defense, with an identical mission. After a bus full of Americans is blown up in Rome, Harvath travels to Europe to track down a man known as the Troll, who's been implicated in the bombing. Meanwhile, John Vaughn, a Chicago cop who somehow moonlights as an attorney for private clients, seeks to identify the Middle Eastern–looking man who ran down a woman with his cab. Predictably, Vaughn uncovers a plot against civilian targets in Chicago. Bumbling CIA agents make members of the secret Carlton Group look even more heroic. Fans of TV's 24 may enjoy the over-the-top setups, but even they might wish for a little more sophistication.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Quite possibly the next coming of Robert Ludlum.”

—Chicago Tribune, on The Last Patriot

"The Master of thrillers"

—Bookreporter.com

“One of the best thriller writers in the business."

—The Ottawa Citizen

“Frightening, illuminating and always entertaining, Thor gives us yet another work of pulse-quickening clarity. If you’re not hyperventilating once you’ve reached the last page, then you weren’t paying attention.” –Joe Hartlaub, bookreporter.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Atria Books; 1 edition (June 29, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416586598
• ISBN-13: 978-1416586593
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I always get asked if Brad Thor is my real name or if I made it up because it sounded perfect for an international thriller writer. My standard reply is that if I was going to chose a nom de plume, it would fall in the C's somewhere between Clancy and Cussler so that all of my books could be displayed at eye level.

As the son of a United States Marine and a former TWA flight attendant, travel has always been in my blood. In fact, the title for my first novel, The Lions of Lucerne came to me while I was in Switzerland shooting an episode of my Public Television travel series, Traveling Lite (still seen in many countries outside the U.S.).

It happened when I went to visit what Mark Twain called the most moving piece of rock in the world. The Lion of Lucerne is a sculpture of a dying lion with a spear broken off in its side. It had been commissioned to honor the 700+ Swiss Guard who died defending King Louis and Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution. Fast-forward a couple of years to my wife and me sitting in a cafe in Amsterdam. I was reading a story in the International Herald Tribune about a Swiss Intelligence officer who had embezzled money from the Swiss Army and was caught training his own shadow militia high in the Alps with high-tech weapons from his own private arsenal. Just like that, the idea for my first novel was born.

Since then, I have written many more with the same protagonist - Navy SEAL turned covert counterterrorism operative, Scot Harvath. Thanks to my readers, all of the novels have been national bestsellers and book club favorites. They are also being made into major motion pictures. By the way, many people ask me what order they should read the books in. You can read them in any order. They are all written to stand on their own. But for those who are interested, the order is: The Lions of Lucerne, Path of the Assassin, State of the Union, and Blowback.

I am currently hard at work on my next Scot Harvath thriller.

Thank you for visiting my Amazon.com page. Please scroll down to learn a little bit more about me and my novels.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

89 of 100 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brad Thor is Awesome!, June 29, 2010

By 

Andrew Peterson, author of "First to Kill... (Central California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Foreign Influence: A Thriller (Scot Harvath) (Hardcover)

FOREIGN INFLUENCE is a fast paced, thrill ride into the world of covert ops. Former Navy SEAL Scot Harvath is back, and in fine form. After a bus loaded with American college students is bombed in Rome, Harvath shifts into high gear. It's a horrific crime that can't go unanswered and Harvath is the man for the job. Clear across the world in Chicago, a second, less spectacular crime is committed--a seemingly random hit and run.

Harvath is no stranger to violent terrorism or the fanatical minds behind it, but Harvath can't know the depth of the evil in play.

In a brutal pursuit that will test his knowledge of justice and mercy, Harvath must also confront his own inner demons, and they're as dangerous as the people he's pursuing. FOREIGN INFLUENCE rocks the house with Thor's best effort yet! We would expect nothing less from the New York Times #1 bestselling author of THE LAST PATRIOT.

Cheers for Brad Thor!

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting thriller, July 9, 2010

By 

Stephen M. Charme (central New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Foreign Influence: A Thriller (Scot Harvath) (Hardcover)

Brad Thor and Vince Flynn are my two favorite authors who write political action thrillers with protagonists who take a no nonsense approach in dealing with terrorists. In this novel former Navy Seal Scot Horvath, who is Thor's protagonist, is assigned by the highly covert government agency for whom he works to capture the Troll, with whom Horvath has dealt in other novels, because the agency suspects the Troll of committing certain terrorist acts. But Horvath soon realizes that the Troll has been framed, and actually enlists his help in trying to prevent terrorist acts of destruction in Europe and America.

Thor is at the top of his game in this action packed, fast moving, and well crafted story. Horvath uses some particularly gruesome enhanced interrogation techniques, though he never loses his humanity. Indeed, without giving anything away, Thor nicely explores the tension that Horvath has in the relationship with his fiancee Tracy. Thor also highlights the role of women in combatting terrorists by having an elite Delta Force team comprised solely of women assist Horvath as he races literally all over the globe to uncover and prevent certain planned terrorist attacks.

This novel is fast reading and very entertaining. Most of the negative reviews do not deal with the novel, but with ordering problems with Amazon. If like me you are a Brad Thor fan, you will not be disappointed. And if you are new to Brad Thor, you can easily understand what is going on without having read his earlier novels. I really liked this novel and recommend it.

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brutal, yet entertaining as ever., July 1, 2010

By 

Jason Frost "RubiconReader" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Foreign Influence: A Thriller (Scot Harvath) (Hardcover)

Was it me or was Scot Harvath incredibly brutal in this one? While Thor's books do strike an emotional chord, it struck a very different one in the beginning of this book. We all know what cowards and hypocrites terrorist are, but when Scot happens upon a terrorist camps that holds and tortures children... chilling. I was ready to grab a rifle and march over there myself. Vindication is had in an incredibly poignant and heartbreaking scene. And that scene sets the tone for this book. Scot doesn't usually hold back but there was something... different... about the type of needed brutality and the method in which it was dispensed.

The chickenhearted "my religion is about peace" terrorists are tossing bombs around like candy and innocent people are, of course, the unwitting targets. The horrors described are brutal and graphic. There are a number of storylines that swirl around in this book but Brad being Brad brings them together in one explosive "ending".

I read this one with the same fervor that I read ALL of Thor's books. I find that I have "reader's remorse" when I read his work. I get it, I devour it, and then I hate myself because now I have to wait even longer for his next work. Whoever said "patience is a virtue" has never read a good... GREAT book. Luckily Brad will put out another one at the end of this year. The surprise is how he works that one in this one. Brad Thor is an author whose work I love reading, love talking about, and love spending my time reading.