Scot Harvath, the hero of Brad Thor's terrific long-running series, has had a really tough go of it lately. He has lost his wife; his mentor, Reed Carlton, of the Carlton Group, which employed him; and a trusted colleague, Carl Pedersen. He has elected to drop off the grid and drink himself into oblivion in Key West, Florida. But after being asked to leave his regular resort following an altercation, he drives to the far end of the island, checking into a lowbrow hotel for two weeks. The action in NEAR DARK takes off when he visits a seedy local bar.

The prologue features a conversation between Andre Weber, a Westerner, and Lieu Van Trang, an elderly Vietnamese gentleman. Both are extremely wealthy and powerful. Their discussion quickly shifts to the amount of money they need to hire the best assassins in the world to take out someone permanently. That target is the one and only Scot Harvath. As he is fighting two bikers outside the Key West bar in which he had been drinking bourbon, a stealthy gunman takes aim at him. A shot is fired, but it is not Harvath who goes down --- it is the shooter himself.

"NEAR DARK is everything you would expect from a Brad Thor book. A staunch conservative who has shown his disillusion for the current political landscape through his recent work, Thor gets an opportunity to step away from these trappings --- and the result is an outstanding chase novel."

Harvath is rescued by a small team that he had become acquainted with during his top-secret government work. He is whisked away to Washington, D.C. for a meeting with an old friend. Nicholas, the diminutive dwarf and his one-time foe, has stepped up in the absence of Carlton. He is an expert at many things, not the least of which are hacking and scanning the dark web, where he finds chatter about a hit put out on Harvath. Now they need to determine who wants him dead to the point where money is no object and all the top assassins are invited to claim the bounty on him.

One of these hitmen is a former Irish citizen now living in France under an assumed name. Michael McElhone is now Paul Aubertin and is one of the best in the business at what he does. He has a special love for the French national landmark Mont-Saint-Michel, which not only will play a role in the story but also is keenly depicted on the book’s cover.

Against the wishes of his superiors and peers, Harvath decides to throw himself back into the most recent places in which he had stirred up trouble to see if he can pick up the scent of who is paying to have him killed. Everyone at the Carlton Group wants Pedersen's killer dead, but they are not confident that Harvath is going to figure it out.

We also are introduced to a Norwegian version of our protagonist, a tall and striking female operative named Sølvi Kolstad. She has experienced a tragedy of her own involving personal loss and drug addiction, and finds an almost instant kinship with Harvath. Having an ally is a good thing at this point, but he still has no intel on how, when or where the attempt on his life will come. In true Brad Thor style, the book continues to globe-trot across the planet as Harvath and Kolstad fight, torture and go clue-tracing until they get a jump on the assassin. A final breathtaking showdown will take place, like something out of a James Bond novel or film.

NEAR DARK is everything you would expect from a Brad Thor book. A staunch conservative who has shown his disillusion for the current political landscape through his recent work, Thor gets an opportunity to step away from these trappings --- and the result is an outstanding chase novel. He knows his stuff, as evidenced by his work in many secret government think tanks throughout his career, his depictions of “spook life” and his knowledge of great international locales. He dedicates the book “To all those we lost. And to all those who bravely served so that the rest might live.”

I am looking forward to the next installment (the 20th!) of this series, which hopefully will be set amidst our current global pandemic. If there is anyone who could get to the bottom of this mess and come up with a solution, it would be Scot Harvath.