Scot Harvath series by Brad Thor

 Happy Spring! I hope it is nice weather where you are. I just heard from a high school friend that it snowed again yesterday where I used to live. Wow. 

Our Mystery Book Club met in the library last week for the second month in a row! Everyone is so glad to be back. Even the library staff is glad the book clubs are back. They are posting the meetings and book selections on the website again. That really made me feel like we were back.   We may have lost a few regulars through all of this. But we seem to have good core group. Time will tell. 

For our April selection, it was readers choice of the Brad Thor Scot Harvath series. I had seen Brad Thor speak virtually last year and it got me interested.. Since he has 21 books in the series now, it was reader's choice in case some had already read some of the books.

The Scot Harvath books are political thrillers. I chose to start at the beginning and read the first book:

The Lions of Lucerne

About: "On the snowy Utah slopes, thirty Secret Service agents are viciously executed and the vacationing president of the United States kidnapped, seemingly by the Fatah, a lethal terrorist organization in the Middle East. But Scot Harvath, surviving agent and ex-Navy SEAL, doesn't believe the Fatah is responsible. A shadowy coalition comprises some of the highest-ranking officials in government and business – men who operate above the law, realize the threat Scot poses to their hidden agenda, and will do anything to stop him. Framed for murder and on the run, Scot takes to the towering mountains of Switzerland with beautiful Claudia Mueller of the Swiss Federal Attorney's Office. They brave subzero temperatures and sheer heights of treacherous Mount Pilatus, and the den of notorious professional killers."

There is some interesting background to this book. 

First, Brad Thor's background: "Brad has served as a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Analytic Red Cell Unit. He has also lectured to law enforcement organizations on over-the-horizon/future threats, and has been a keynote speaker for the National Tactical Officers Association annual conference. In 2008, Brad shadowed a Black Ops team in Afghanistan to research his thriller, The Apostle. Brad graduated cum laude from the University of Southern California where he studied creative writing, film, and television production. Prior to becoming a novelist, Brad was the award-winning creator, producer, writer and host of the critically acclaimed national public television series, Traveling Lite."

Second: During his days of hosting a travel show, he had been to Switzerland and seen the Lion Monument or The Lion of Lucerne rock carving. He thought it would make a good book cover and/or title. 

Third: Thor saw an article about a Swiss Intelligence officer who was embezzling money from the Swiss government and training his own shadow militia in the Alps.

The idea for this first book was born.

I really liked The Lions of Lucerne. I listened to it in audio. It is very fast paced with constant action. 

Everyone in the MBC liked the book or books they had read in this series. A couple people went on to read more than one of the books. One person had read them all before and enjoyed revisiting the books. There certainly had to have been a great deal of research for this books in this series. The books often deal with things that are going on in the world and gave many of us a "that could happen" feeling. We all agreed, that it didn't seem like Scot Harvath would live to be in another book. lol 

All in all, this series is a good pick if you like political thrillers and lots of action.

https://bradthor.com/