A free Simon & Schuster eBook, prelude to Hidden Order.

Master of suspense and #1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor returns with his most riveting international thriller yet.A new administration and a new approach to dealing with America's enemies have left covert counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath without a job. But when American doctor Julia Gallo is kidnapped in Afghanistan, the terms of her ransom leave the president with only one course of action.In a dangerous assignment that the United States government will deny any knowledge of, Scot Harvath must secretly infiltrate Kabul's notorious Policharki Prison and free the man the kidnappers demand as ransom - al-Qaeda mastermind, Mustafa Khan.But when Harvath arrives, he quickly learns that there is more to the kidnapping than anyone dares to admit. And as the subterfuge is laid bare, Harvath must examine his own career of hunting down and killing terrorists, and ask himself if he has what it takes to help one of the world's worst go free.Brimming with the kind of ripped-from-the-headlines authenticity Brad Thor's internationally bestselling novels are known for, The Apostle doubles down on the blockbuster success of The Last Patriot and reaffirms Thor's status as the master of the political thriller. Unabridged Compact Disk Includes a Bonus MP3 CD of Brad Thor's *The Lions Of Lucerne*From Publishers WeeklyAt the start of bestseller Thor's less than convincing sixth Scot Harvath thriller (after The Last Patriot), Robert Alden, the new and naïve U.S. president, has just taken office with a landslide victory, due mainly to the assistance of strategist Stephanie Gallo, who "delivered the mainstream media for him on a silver platter." When Gallo's daughter, a doctor working in Afghanistan, is kidnapped, Gallo turns to Alden for help, and he, in turn, calls on Harvath, a former Navy SEAL and intelligence operative. Since the kidnappers are demanding the release of one of Osama bin Laden's lieutenants, Alden can't be seen to be negotiating with them. Thus Harvath must carry out his tricky assignment without official sanction. Meanwhile, Secret Service agent Elise Campbell, troubled by a conversation fragment she overheard indicating that Gallo has serious dirt on the president, launches an off-the-books inquiry into the pre-election death in a car accident of an attractive aide to Alden. The overseas rescue operation is more plausible than the stateside plot, but that's not saying much. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review'Brad Thor is as current as tomorrow's headlines' -- Dan Brown 'A brutal master of suspense' -- James Rollins 'Brad Thor rocks!' -- Tess Gerritsen

1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor delivers his most frightening and pulse-pounding thriller ever!After a CIA agent mysteriously dies overseas, his top asset surfaces with a startling and terrifying claim. There’s just one problem—no one knows if she can be trusted. But when six exchange students go missing, two airplane passengers trade places, and one political-asylum seeker is arrested, a deadly chain of events is set in motion. With the United States facing an imminent and devastating attack, America’s new president must turn to covert counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath to help carry out two of the most dangerous operations in the country’s history. Code-named "Gold Dust" and "Blackbird," they are shrouded in absolute secrecy as either of them, if discovered, will constitute an act of war.**

Brad Thor, master of suspense and #1 New York Times bestselling author is back with his highest-voltage thriller to date in which Navy SEAL turned covert Homeland Security operative Scot Harvath must race to locate an ancient secret that has the power to stop militant Islam dead in its tracks. June 632 A.D.: Deep within the Uranah Valley of Mount Arafat in Mecca, the Prophet Mohammed shares with his closest companions a final and startling revelation. Within days, he is assassinated. September 1789: U.S. Minister to France Thomas Jefferson, who is charged with forging a truce with the violent Muslim pirates of the Barbary Coast, makes a shocking discovery—one that could forever impact the world’s relationship with Islam. Present day: When a car bomb explodes outside a Parisian cafÉ, Scot Harvath is thrust back into the life he has tried so desperately to leave behind. Saving the intended victim of the attack, Harvath becomes party to a perilous race to uncover a secret so powerful that militant Islam could be defeated once and for all. But as desperate as the American government is to have the information brought to light, there are powerful forces determined that Mohammed’s mysterious final revelation continue to remain hidden forever. What Jason Bourne was to the Cold War, Scot Harvath is to the War on Terror. In The Last Patriot, readers will be engrossed as Harvath once again takes them on a whirlwind tour through international cities and nail-biting suspense where the stakes are higher than they have ever been before.About the AuthorBrad Thor is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lions of Lucerne, Path of the Assassin, State of the Union, Blowback, Takedown, and The First Commandment. He currently lives in Chicago. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. CHAPTER 1 Rome, ItalyMonday Evening The Italian Centre for Photoreproduction, Binding, and Restoration of State Archives, also known as the CFLR, was located in an unassuming postmodern office building three blocks from the Tiber River at 14 Via Costanza Baudana Vaccolini. It boasted one of the world's leading archival preservation facilities, as well as a young deputy assistant director named Alessandro Lombardi who was eager to begin his evening. "Dottore, mi scusi," said Lombardi. Dr. Marwan Khalifa, a distinguished Koranic scholar in his early sixties with a handsome face and neatly trimmed beard, looked up from the desk he was working at. "Yes, Alessandro?" The Italian adopted his most charming smile and asked, "Tonight, we finish early?" Dr. Khalifa laughed and set down his pen. "You have another date this evening?" Lombardi approached and showed the visiting scholar a picture on his mobile phone. "What happened to the blond woman?" Lombardi shrugged. "That was last week." Khalifa picked his pen back up. "I suppose I can be done in an hour." "An hour?" exclaimed Lombardi as he pressed his hands together in mock prayer. "Dottore, if I don't leave now, all of the good tables outside will be gone. Please. When the weather is this nice, Italians are not allowed to work late. It's state policy." Khalifa knew better. No matter what the weather, there were always people working late in the CFLR building -- maybe not in the Research and Preservation department, but there was almost always a light burning somewhere. "If you want to leave your keys, I'll lock up the office when I go." "And my time card?" asked Lombardi, pressing his luck. "You get paid for the time you work, my friend." "Va bene," replied the young man as he fished a set of keys for the department from his pocket and set them on the desk. "I'll see you in the morning." "Have fun," said Khalifa. Lombardi flashed him the smile once more and then made his way toward the exit, turning off any unnecessary lights along his way. Dr. Khalifa's desk was a large drafting-style table, illuminated by two adjustable lamps. His time as well as Lombardi's was being paid for by the Yemeni Antiquities Authority. In 1972, workers in Yemen had made a startling discovery. Restoring the aging Great Mosque at Sana'a, said to have been one of the first architectural projects of Islam commissioned by the prophet Mohammed himself, the workers uncovered a hidden loft between the mosque's inner and outer roofs. Inside the loft was a mound of parchments and pages of Arabic texts that at some point had been secreted away, and were now melded together through centuries of exposure to rain and dampness. In archeological circles, such a discovery was referred to as a "paper grave." Cursory examinations suggested that what the grave contained were tens of thousands of fragments from at least a thousand early parchment codices of the Koran. Access to the full breadth of the find had never been allowed. Bits and pieces had been made available to a handful of scholars over the years, but out of respect for the sanctity of the documents, no one had ever been permitted to study the entire discovery. No one that is, until Dr. Marwan Khalifa. Khalifa was one of the world's preeminent Koranic scholars and had spent the majority of his professional career building relationships with the Yemeni Antiquities Authority and politely petitioning it to allow him to review the find. Finally, there was a changing of the guard and the new president of the Antiquities Authority, a significantly younger and more progressive man, invited Khalifa to study the entirety of what the workers at Sana'a had uncovered. It didn't take long for Khalifa to realize the magnitude of the find. As Yemen didn't have the proper facilities to preserve and study the fragments and as the Yemeni government was absolutely opposed to Khalifa taking the items back to the United States, an arrangement was made for the complete contents of the grave to be transferred to the CFLR in Rome where they could be preserved and studied before being returned to Yemen. With the blessing of the new Antiquities Authority president, Khalifa oversaw the entire process, including the technical side which included such things as edge detection, document degradation, global and adaptive thresholding, color clustering, and image processing. His anticipation grew as each scrap was preserved and he was able to begin assembling the pieces of the puzzle. A significant percentage of the parchments dated back to the seventh and eighth centuries -- Islam's first two centuries. Khalifa was handling pieces of the earliest Korans known to mankind. This only made the inconsistencies he discovered from standard Koranic texts even more exciting. A billion-and-a-half Muslims worldwide believed that the Koran they worshiped today was the perfect, inviolate word of God -- an exact word-for-word, perfect copy of the original book as it exists in Paradise and just as it was transmitted, without a single error, by Allah to the Prophet Mohammed through the Angel Gabriel. As a textual historian, Khalifa was fascinated by the inconsistencies. As a moderate Muslim who loved his religion, but believed deeply that it was in need of reform, he was overjoyed. The fact that he had found, and was continuing to find, aberrations that differed from Islamic dogma meant that the case could finally be made that the Koran needed to be reexamined in a historical framework. He had always believed that the Koran had been written by man, not God. If such a thing could be proven, Muslims around the world would be able to reexamine their faith with a modern, twenty-first-century perspective, rather than the outdated, unenlightened perspective of seventh-century Arabia. And now it seemed that he had just the proof he needed. It was such a powerful discovery that Khalifa could barely sleep at night. It dovetailed so well with another project his colleague Anthony Nichols was working on back in America, that he felt as if Allah himself was steering his research, that this was His divine will. All Khalifa could think about when he wasn't at work was getting back to the CFLR facility each day to further investigate the fragments. Though on evenings like this Khalifa missed Lombardi's companionship as well as his expertise with the technical equipment, the truth was that he hardly noticed when the young Italian was gone. In fact, he was often so engrossed that he barely noticed Lombardi even when he was standing at the desk right in front of him. Turning to the voluminous collection of information he had stored on his rugged Toughbook laptop, Khalifa pulled up one of the thirty-two thousand images the CFLR had already digitally archived. While he could have crossed the room and retrieved the fragment itself, he often found it unnecessary as accessing the digital images was much easier. Khalifa was working on lining up six slivers of text written in the Hijazzi script when a shadow fell across his drafting table. "What did you forget this time, Alessandro?" the scholar asked without looking up. "I didn't forget anything," responded a deep, unfamiliar voice. "It is you who have forgotten." Dr. Khalifa looked up and saw a man in a long, black soutane with a white collar. It was a common sight throughout Rome, particularly near the Vatican. But while the CFLR did do a certain amount of work with the Holy See, Khalifa had never seen a priest inside the building. "Who are you?" "That's not important," replied the priest as he moved closer. "I would rather discuss your faith." "You must be confused, Father," said Khalifa as he sat up in his chair. "I'm not a Catholic. I'm Muslim." "I know," said the priest softly. "That's why I'm here." In an explosion of black cloth, the priest was suddenly behind Khalifa. One of his large, rough hands cupped the scholar's chin while the other gripped the side of his head. With a powerful snap, the priest broke Khalifa's neck. He stood there for a moment, the corpse clutched tightly, almost lovingly to his chest, then stepped back and let go. Khalifa's head slammed against the table before coming to rest beneath it. The priest dragged the body across the floor and positioned it at the bottom of a set of stairs which led up to a small archival library. From there, it took only moments to set the fire. Two hours later, having showered and changed, the assassin sat in his hotel room and studied Khalifa's laptop. Connecting to a remote server, he had the Koranic scholar's password program cracked within fifteen minutes. From there, one e-mail confirmed everything he needed to know. Marwan, Finally, good news! It appears we have located the book. A dealer named René Bertrand is bringing it to market in Paris at the Antiquarian Book Fair. I will be meeting him there to negotiate the purchase. As you know, my funding is limited, but I have faith that barring an all-out bidding war, the book will be ours! As planned, I will see you next Monday at 9:00 a.m. in the Middle Eastern Reading Room of the Library of Congress -- although now we'll have the book and can begin deciphering the location of the final revelation! Anthony The assassin had had Khalifa under surveillance long enough to know who the sender was and what he was referring to. It was a parallel and potentially more damaging project, which up until this point had appeared stalled. Obviously, things had changed -- and not for the better. The assassin shut down the laptop and spent the next several hours pondering the implication of what he had learned. He then started formulating a plan. When all of the angles had been considered and tested in his mind, he reactivated the computer. Attaching the relevant e-mails between Khalifa a...

A stunning masterwork of action, intrigue, and ingenious plot twists. Someone has just added counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath’s name. Somehow Harvath must evade the teams dispatched to kill him long enough to untangle who has targeted him and why they want him out of the way. Somewhere, someone, somehow can put all the pieces together. The only question is, will Harvath get to that person before the United States suffers the most withering terrorist attack ever conceived? An intense, page-turning novel that is action-packed and frighteningly real, Black List blurs the line between fiction and reality and once again reaffirms why Brad Thor “is arguably the best thriller writer of our time” ( Suspense Magazine ) and “America’s favorite author” “Anyone who thinks the only thing to fear is fear itself should meet Brad Thor.” — Newsweek “The Master of Thrillers.” —Bookreporter.com

A Prelude to Hidden Order , the new thriller from #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Brad Thor . Off the Somali Coast in the Gulf of Adin, members of an elite group have been hired to rescue hostages. Members of the Carlton Group, they guarantee success or no payment is required. Successful completion of the rescue mission relies on speed, surprise and violence. Four members parachute onto the deck of the Sierra Star tanker. One member blows his knee out upon landing so their team is down to three now. Odds are now 3 against 11… After securing the Sienna Star a problem arises. The rescue team learns the Captain has been moved to a nearby village. So, the pressing question is how will this elite three be able to rescue the Captain? And,will they be able to successfully complete their mission?

“With his latest pulse-pounding adventure, Brad Thor puts the rest of the genre on notice—Use of Force is the thriller to beat in 2017.”—The Real Book Spy From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor. As a storm rages across the Mediterranean Sea, a terrifying distress call is made to the Italian Coast Guard. Days later, a body washes ashore. Identified as a high value terrorism suspect (who had disappeared three years prior), his name sends panic through the Central Intelligence Agency. Where was he headed? What was he planning? And could he be connected to the “spectacular attack” they have been fearing all summer? In a race against time, the CIA taps an unorthodox source to get answers: Navy SEAL turned covert counterterrorism operative, Scot Harvath. Hired on a black contract, Harvath will provide the deniability the United States needs, while he breaks every rule along the way. Packed with pulse-pounding action, fascinating characters, and electrifying intrigue, Brad Thor does it again and proves why he is known around-the-world as the “Master of Thrillers.” **Review "His best book yet. Powerful and reads like the news of what is going on today."  (Glenn Beck, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author ) "Brad Thor writes like a high-octane mix of Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum."  (Andrew Mayne, Bestselling Author ) “Pure thriller gold…well conceived, perfectly timed…elegantly paced, harking back to the best of masters like Alistair MacLean and David Morrell.” (The Providence Journal) About the Author Brad Thor is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Foreign Agent, Code of Conduct, Act of War, Hidden Order, Black List, Full Black (one of Suspense Magazine’s best political thrillers of 2011), The Athena Project, Foreign Influence (one of Suspense Magazine’s best political thrillers of 2010), The Apostle, The Last Patriot (nominated best thriller of the year by the International Thriller Writers Association), The First Commandment, Takedown, Blowback (recognized as one of the “Top 100 Killer Thrillers of All Time” by NPR), State of the Union, Path of the Assassin, and The Lions of Lucerne. Visit his website at BradThor.com. 

From Brad Thor, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Code of Conduct, comes a lightning-paced short story, pitting Scot Harvath against a threat unlike any he’s faced before… A deadly betrayal is at the center of The Athens Solution. When a game-changing weapon falls into the wrong hands, the US Ambassador to Greece must risk everything to recover it, even if it means participating in a ruse that costs his life. With the ambassador dead and the device still at large, covert counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath rushes to eliminate a terror cell about to sell the dangerous technology to Iran. As the sun sets on the Aegean Sea, Harvath must go head-to-head with a traitorous adversary in a confrontation that puts the fate of America and her allies at risk. In this riveting addition to his Scot Harvath thrillers, Brad Thor delivers a short story with all the pulse-pounding action and high stakes that are his hallmarks, leaving fans hungry for more! **

#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.From Publishers WeeklyIn 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

#1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor returns with his hottest and most action-packed thriller yet! And don’t miss FREE FALL: A Prelude to Hidden Order, available for free download now! The most secretive organization in America operates without any accountability to the American people. Hiding in the shadows, pretending to be part of the United States government, its power is beyond measure. Control of this organization has just been lost and the future of the nation thrust into peril. When the five candidates being considered to head this mysterious agency suddenly go missing, covert counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath is summoned to Washington and set loose on the most dangerous chase ever to playout on American soil. But as the candidates begin turning up murdered, the chase becomes an all-too-public spectacle, with every indicator suggesting that the plot has its roots in a shadowy American cabal founded in the 1700s. With the United States on the verge of collapse, Harvath must untangle a web of conspiracy centuries in the making and head off the greatest threat America has ever seen. This is thriller writing at its absolute best, where the stakes have never been higher, nor the line between good and evil so hard to discern.

A Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor returns with his hottest and most action-packed thriller yet! And don’t miss FREE FALL: A Prelude to Hidden Order, available for free download now!The most secretive organization in America operates without any accountability to the American people. Hiding in the shadows, pretending to be part of the United States government, its power is beyond measure.Control of this organization has just been lost and the future of the nation thrust into peril.When the five candidates being considered to head this mysterious agency suddenly go missing, covert counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath is summoned to Washington and set loose on the most dangerous chase ever to playout on American soil.But as the candidates begin turning up murdered, the chase becomes an all-too-public spectacle, with every indicator suggesting that the plot has its roots in a shadowy American cabal founded in the 1700s.With the United States on the verge of collapse, Harvath must untangle a web of conspiracy centuries in the making and head off the greatest threat America has ever seen.This is thriller writing at its absolute best, where the stakes have never been higher, nor the line between good and evil so hard to discern.Review[Brad Thor] and Harvath are the real deal, and you should accept no substitues.(BookReporter.com) About the AuthorBrad Thor is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Black List, Full Black, The Athena Project, Foreign Influence, The Apostle, The Last Patriot, The First Commandment, Takedown, Blowback (recognized by NPR as one of the “100 Best Thrillers of All Time”), State of the Union, Path of the Assassin, and The Lions of Lucerne. Visit his website at BradThor.com.

"Thor tops himself again and again." (BookReporter.com) "Feels like the TV show 24 on the page." (The Associated Press) Includes an extended behind-the-scenes conversation with author Brad Thor and narrator Armand Schultz. Number-one New York Times best-selling author Brad Thor presents his greatest thriller ever-an action-packed literary tour de force! Hidden deep within one of the world's most powerful organizations is a secret committee with a devastating agenda. Its members are afforded incredible protections-considered elites, untouchables. But when four seconds of video is captured halfway around the world and anonymously transmitted to DC, covert wheels are set in motion, and counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath is tapped to undertake the deadliest assignment of his career. What begins as a favor will evolve into a globe-spanning drama of highly personal stakes played out against a backdrop of stunning international intrigue, duplicitous political gamesmanship, and the darkest, most clandestine fears of the espionage world. With razor-sharp plotting, richly rendered characters, and heart-stopping surprises on every page, Thor isn't just at the top of his game-he owns the entire genre.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor—a brilliant thriller as “current as tomorrow’s headlines.” Terrorism in Europe has spun out of control. The United States has decided on a dramatic response. Now, the CIA needs a very special kind of operative. Scot Harvath has exactly the skills the CIA is looking for. He’s a former U.S. Navy SEAL with extensive experience in espionage. Working for a private intelligence company, he will provide the CIA, and more important, the President, with absolute deniability. But deep within the Russian Caucasus, Moscow also has its own special kind of operative. As a child, Sacha Baseyev endured an unimaginable horror. Today, he lives and breathes for only one reason—to kill. And he will kill as many Americans as it takes to accomplish his mission. When a clandestine American operations team is ambushed near Syria, all signs point toward a dangerous informant in Brussels. But as Harvath searches for the man, he uncovers another actor—a rogue player hell-bent on forcing America’s hand and drawing it into a confrontation deadlier than anyone could have imagined. As the attacks mount, and terror is brought to the very doorstep of the White House, Harvath finds himself in the race of his life. From Vienna, Brussels, and Berlin, to Malta, Jordan, and Syria—he will push himself beyond the edge in order to confront one of the greatest evils the world has ever known. Filled with action, intrigue, and edge-of-your-seat suspense, Foreign Agent is a nonstop thrill ride that reaffirms Thor’s position as the “master of thrillers.” **Review "Rocks from page one … I didn’t put it down until the last page. If you are a fan of Brad Thor, this book is one not to miss.” (Men Reading Books) "Foreign Agent is without a doubt the best thing hitting bookstores this summer. Buy it and move it straight to the top of your to-read list, it’s that good.” (The Real Book Spy) “An adrenaline ride through labyrinthine worlds of espionage and international intrigue.” (Townhall) "One of those books you end up staying awake until 2 AM reading.” (Brit + Co) "Foreign Agent is Thor’s best yet.” (Hugh Hewitt, host of The Hugh Hewitt Show) About the Author Brad Thor is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Code of Conduct, Act of War, Hidden Order, Black List, Full Black (one of Suspense Magazine’s best political thrillers of 2011), The Athena Project, Foreign Influence (one of Suspense Magazine’s best political thrillers of 2010), The Apostle, The Last Patriot (nominated best thriller of the year by the International Thriller Writers Association), The First Commandment, Takedown, Blowback (recognized as one of the “Top 100 Killer Thrillers of All Time” by NPR), State of the Union, Path of the Assassin, and The Lions of Lucerne. Visit his website at BradThor.com. 

A master assassin. A vendetta years in the making. And a counterterrorism operative who will risk everything -- even treason -- to keep the people he loves alive.Brad Thor, the New York Times bestselling author of Takedown, delivers an explosive international thriller featuring Navy SEAL turned Homeland Security operative Scot Harvath, who somewhere, somehow, has left the wrong person alive. "Thou shalt not negotiate with terrorists..." Six months ago: In the dead of the night, five of the most dangerous detainees in the war on terror are pulled from their isolation cells in Guantanamo Bay, held at gunpoint, and told to strip off their orange jumpsuits. Issued civilian clothes and driven to the base airfield, they are loaded aboard a Boeing 727 and set free. Present day: Covert counterterrorism agent Scot Harvath awakens to discover that his world has changed violently -- and forever. A sadistic assassin with a personal vendetta is wreaking havoc of biblical proportions. Unleashing nightmarish horrors on those closest to Harvath, the attacker thrusts everything Harvath holds dear -- including his life -- into absolute peril. Ordered by the president to stay out of the investigation, Harvath is forced to mount his own operation to uncover the conspiracy and to exact revenge. When he discovers a connection between the attacks and a group of prisoners secretly released from Guantanamo, Harvath must ask himself previously unthinkable questions about the organizations and the nation he has spent his life serving. A renegade from his own government, Harvath will place his life on the line as his search for the truth draws him into a showdown with one of the most dangerous men on the face of the earth. Brad Thor roars through this nonstop adventure full of international intrigue, twisted betrayals, and ultimate revenge.From Publishers WeeklyBestseller Thor's latest thrill-ride begins in anguish. Scot Harvath, navy SEAL turned Homeland Security superagent, sits at the bedside of girlfriend Tracy Hastings, who's in a deep coma after being gravely wounded at the end of Takedown. Meanwhile, five terrorists have been released from Guantánamo Bay as part of a secret hostage deal forced upon U.S. president Jack Rutledge. When one of the terrorists starts targeting Scot's friends and family, Scot discovers that the president won't allow the assassin to be hunted down. Soon enough, Scot is on the run from his own government and in pursuit of the killer. Many characters make appearances from earlier books, in particular Scot's ongoing nemesis, the fascinating, intelligence-gathering expert known as the Troll. It's a long, violent, shoot-'em-up, blow-'em-up pulse-pounder that will leave Thor's fans cheering and begging for more. (Aug.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review"Brad Thor proves again to be a brutal master of suspense. The First Commandment is as riveting as it is relentless. A must-read for our times!" --James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author of Black Order and The Judas Strain"Brad Thor knows how to excite the senses. The First Commandment is an adrenaline-charged, slick thriller, packed with suspense, that never relents. Another winner from a proven master." -- Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of The Alexandria Link"Fast-paced and action-packed. Sure to please his many fans and gain new ones. Immensely satisfying and highly recommended." -- Library Journal"Readers who like Tom Clancy and Stephen Coonts will love Brad Thor -- quite possibly the next coming of Robert Ludlum." -- Chicago Tribune