If I ever find myself trapped behind enemy lines, with a family member kidnapped by a foreign national, or simply on the verge of being mugged on the streets of New York City, the one person I would want around to save the day would be Scot Harvath. Having been pretty much the central figure of what now amounts to 19 books, Harvath represents the type of brash, cowboy-up heroics that has become a dying breed in both our world and the world of fiction.

Brad Thor is another hero of mine. He is a beacon of conservative light in a literary field mostly made up of authors with contrary positions. In the crazy world in which we presently live, this makes me appreciate Thor even more. His latest novel, BACKLASH, is filled with classic U.S. vs. Russia gameplay that makes you feel as if it was written at the height of the Cold War, well supplanted in the Reagan era. The action takes place in the present, and the result is a politically charged thriller that may be Thor's finest work. Once again, he has demonstrated why he is the modern-day successor to the late, great Tom Clancy.

"There will be killing till the score is paid." That quote from Homer's epic, THE ODYSSEY, begins this great novel and pretty much sums up what is to follow in a succinctly powerful sentence. The story opens with a flight of military men all escorting one very important passenger, who is hooded and chained in place so as to not bring harm to any of the armed men around him. The image calls to mind the opening sequence of Christopher Nolan's final Dark Knight film, which featured the supervillain Bane in a similar position. Much like the plane that Bane was on, things do not end well for this flight or most of the people on board, as it crashes into the frozen tundra that is the Murmansk Oblast region of Russia.

"The action takes place in the present, and the result is a politically charged thriller that may be Thor's finest work. Once again, he has demonstrated why he is the modern-day successor to the late, great Tom Clancy."

At the same time, a police chief from New Hampshire is placing a call into the CIA because of a murder scene he came upon. A house on Governors Island contains four corpses. It is obvious to the chief that these people had been killed by a skilled assassin, and judging from the mess left behind, someone from that household was taken against his or her will.

Successive chapters reveal the details of these two mini-mysteries. Among the deceased from the home in New Hampshire are the founder of The Carlton Group, Reed Carlton; his successor, Lydia Ryan; and Lara Cordero, the fiancée of former Special Forces and current Carlton Group primary operative Scot Harvath. It turns out that the gathering was the clandestine wedding of Harvath and Cordero, a sacred event that was invaded by enemy forces who took the lives of the people closest to Harvath --- obviously with the intent of sending a message.

This information now reveals the identity of the masked prisoner on the ill-fated Russian flight.  With countless enemies made around the globe over his many years of service, it could have been almost any group that had it in for Harvath. However, the wedding was so close to the vest that it had to have been someone on the inside who gave up that location to the Russian terrorists who stormed the ceremony and took Harvath with them. Bringing him back to Russia is a huge win for Russian forces, and one that particularly humiliates the American President as well as the entire U.S. intelligence community.

With that plane crash-landing, Harvath is fortunate to have survived and suffered only minor injuries. He is strong enough, and filled with enough rage, to promptly take out all of the remaining Russian military men from the plane. He also is able to leave the head of the mission alone to die a painful death as his lower extremities are crushed beyond help. The only issue now is for an unarmed Harvath, without any form of communication, to survive in the frozen landscape in this stark part of Russia, which also happens to be in the midst of a killer blizzard.

It is at this point where BACKLASH shows off Thor's finest writing, which has never been seen in any of his previous books. We are able to enjoy a man versus wilderness scenario that could have been stripped right off the pages of a Jack London novel. I so thoroughly enjoyed this portion of the story that I didn't want it to end. But I knew I had to prepare myself for an ending that most likely would depict revenge like we have never seen before in any prior installment of this stellar series.

Harvath cannot get to safety by himself and is fortunate to make the acquaintance of a Russian doctor named Christina. Christina has no love lost for the Russian military as her husband was a casualty of one of their missions, leaving her alone without any compensation for his death. He needs to get to the safety of Finland, but that is a long and arduous journey in life-threatening weather conditions. Now, having been able to finally get word to his colleagues in the U.S., we are set for a rescue attempt that will have readers biting their nails right down to their nubs.

Just as satisfying, if not more so, is the highly anticipated revenge. Harvath is completely hollow inside with grief, and there is not a person or force of nature on the planet who could stop him from his next mission. I won't reveal the details, but can assure his fans that you will be as entertained as I was to go along for that ride.

BACKLASH is a triumph for Brad Thor that will attain the expected bestseller status it so deserves. I just hope that his other loyal readers appreciate the effort he put into this book by giving us a situation for Scot Harvath that we all hoped we would see one day, while at the same time leaving our hero a mere shell of himself with an uncertain future on his horizon. We'll just have to wait for the next one.