Fiction Addict

Genre: Military Thriller

Publisher: Atria Books

Publication date: June 30, 2009

Reviewed by Jeremy Taylor

Brad Thor’s eighth novel featuring special-forces hero Scot Harvath provides decent entertainment value along with an in-depth and realistic look at the conditions U.S. troops face in Afghanistan, but it is plagued by a flawed premise and lackluster writing.

When the daughter of a wealthy presidential supporter is kidnapped in Afghanistan, Scot Harvath is called upon to comply with the ransom demands by breaking a captured terrorist out of prison. Unwilling to compromise his patriotic principles by aiding the enemy, even under orders from the commander in chief, Harvath assembles a team to help him carry out a revised mission—free the terrorist, but instead of exchanging him for the American hostage, use him to ascertain where she is being held, then free her and return the terrorist to the Afghan authorities. True to form, Harvath is determined to right a wrong and save the day while upholding the fundamentals of conservative American foreign policy.

As a military adventure story, the book mostly succeeds. Thor is good at writing exciting action scenes, and the book is for the most part fun and easy to read. The problem is that in trying to manufacture a believable reason why the U.S. president would so blatantly misuse his office’s authority by ordering a terrorist freed in exchange for the life of a political ally’s child, the story becomes overcomplicated. By the time the reader has made it through the background investigation by a Secret Service agent into events that politically indebted the president to the hostage’s mother, the story is all but finished, rendering the background basically moot and the tidy conclusion ultimately unsatisfying. The book would have been better had it focused on a simple search-and-rescue operation. Of course, then there might not have been reason enough for Scot Harvath to rise to the challenge in the first place.

Thor actually traveled to Afghanistan and was embedded with a military unit as part of his research for writing The Apostle, which lends a degree of authenticity to the characters’ experiences. One tidbit that stands out is the acronym TIA—“This Is Afghanistan”—used to explain seemingly incomprehensible differences between American and Afghan sensibilities.

Unfortunately, the book’s positives are balanced, if not outweighed, by the negatives. Lack of character depth and the plot’s over complexity significantly detract from the well-researched story and genuinely suspenseful military action scenes. In the end, The Apostle serves as an example of what could have been a timely, compelling book held to mediocrity by a few avoidable flaws.

Review copy provided by Atria Books.