Black List: A Thriller (Volume 11) (The Scot Harvath Series)

This was a fun action-packed book, a great spy-thriller. This is the 11th book in the series and while I think it will be fun to go back and read the previous books they certainly are not needed. There is plenty of background supplied.

Scot has finished a mission and has just arrived at the safe

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house in Paris when he is suddenly attacked by gunmen. Scot is able to escape, though his friend in the safe-house doesn't, he does a disappearing act but he has no idea who tried to kill him. When he feels he found a safe hideout he attempts to contact home base only to be met with silence.

The reason is his boss is having his own run in with these same people and needs to play dead for a couple days. His bodyguards were killed and his house set ablaze in the middle of the night, with him in it. Some powerful people are making a power play and Scots group are an unknown that need to be cleaned up before the show starts.

There was one big mistake the main character shouldn’t have made. He is a highly trained field operative. He was on the run because of a failed attempt on his life by an unknown antagonist group at an actual safe house. He goes to ground to hide, regroup and figure out what is going on. He needs to contact his boss. So what does he do? He gets an internet connection, and routes his path through a dozen different servers to make it harder to be traced back to his physical location. This is great trade-craft. Then he connects to his bosses account, there is no immediate activity and he waits connected online FOR AN HOUR! What may I ask was the point of going through all the different servers to hide if you are just going to wait for them to track you back to your lair? Stupid, stupid stupid.

Other than the one complaint, I really did enjoy this book quite a bit. I plan to try starting at the beginning and read them all. This one did have some scary things about what is happening and what can happen should our government decide it wants to start tracking its citizens more closely. It has a good warning message that more people really do need to be a little worried about.

4 stars

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This novel is about a very scary vision of what government contractors to the intelligence agencies of the government could accomplish. Hopefully this will never occur. But with all of the expansion of intelligence activities after September 11th, who knows what is going on behind the scenes. Some

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of the laws passed after September 11th could facilitate this type of action by the government contractors. It is a good argument for all intelligence activities to use government employees and for effective oversight by Congress (like that will ever happen with our polarized Congress). This should serve as another warning along the lines of Ike's warning about the Military Industrial Complex about where government is headed.

This is another excellent novels by Brad Thor. It is a very enjoyable read. It is almost impossible to put the book down at the end. You just can't wait to get to the end to find out how it ends.

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I just finished reading Lee Child's new Jack Reacher novel, A Wanted Man, and while I like his books, this one was just "Eh, OK." Brad Thor on the other hand was really, really really good. The author's note in the front states: "All of the technology contained in this novel is based on systems

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currently deployed, or in the final stages of development, by the US government and its partners." After reading this book and keeping in mind that statement, you will be really, really, REALLY scared. A hell of a read.

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Black List a novel by Brad Thor. A complex plan in America’s technology to become the one interconnected brain unfolds. Digital intrusion is in progress to steal the DNA mind of every man, woman and child in the United States. Harvath and his intelligence colleagues have uncovered this plan and

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Harvath is on their death list. This book reveals characters in action and conflict within the depth of the deadly plan. Chapters are clear with action belonging to which character. Descriptive subtext is at a minimum, leaving the plot to advance through action with minimal motion interaction of characters. Attention to the plot advances in combining knowledge of technology, and duty of characters reacting within exciting situations. There is little suspense generated throughout the book for locations with the short narrative of characters. Harvath is targeted with deadly circumstances, generated by the same cold abandon extended to America’s population. This book is thrilling adventure, to become a readers awareness in world the around them, citizens or not.

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Good thriller, solid references to current topic/technology. Another in a line of great books by Brad Thor.

I view this as Thor's vision of "1984", and he portrays a fairly realistic and frightening account of the Orwell classic. Scot Harvath and the group he is a part of are set up as potential terrorists by the government to get them out of the way so that certain groups can basically cause havoc by

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shutting down the American electronic and computer infrastructure (think internet). The novel basically describes Harvath's attempt to avoid capture while clearing his and his group's name, all in the backdrop of being literally under constant surveillance of the government and other rogue groups. My understanding is that a lot of this "watching" is currently going on as described in the book. Not a fun thought....

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If you have any misgivings about the American Government then you should read this book. It will be like throwing gas on a fire. Brad Thor wrote a compelling story that has many plausible scenarios throughout the story line. This is a Damn good book and everyone should read it.

quite unnerving read, especially since the whole NSA scandal that's come out in the recent past, long after this book was published. Excellent read, will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Good could have been great if Thor had done more to develop the potential threat of the government contractor. Lots of action.