Black Ice is one of Brad Thor’s finest thrillers, pumping fresh blood into the series with an ingeniously contemporary plot and huge character developments to materialize over the next few books. Scot Harvath is better than ever this time around. As Harvath vacations in Norway with his new girlfriend Sølvi, he comes across a man whom he was sure was dead. With a burning curiosity to get to the bottom of the unbelievable occurrence, Harvath pursues the suspect, only to get embroiled in a murky association forged between Russia and China over a dangerous piece of technology which may spell doom for America. An intriguing modernization of the Cold War.
Brad Thor brilliantly builds up the narrative with an anticipatory energy, revealing just a hint of what is to come without giving away the full picture. His smooth prose gently guides the reader through the events in the story without jumping around haphazardly.
Black Ice is not an action-packed thriller for good reason as it invests more time on the sleuthing and espionage tradecraft elements which emphasize the need for discretionary measures to achieve goals over a brute guns-blazing approach. That being said, the shootouts are written superbly well with the accurate technical details. It is delightful to read Harvath exploring a previously dormant dark side to him with in-combat interrogation techniques that turn out to be highly effective due to the dark nature of the threats Harvath promises to go through with.
With huge developments for Harvath and Solvi’s relationship that signify Harvath’s personal character growth from Backlash and Near Dark, Black Ice balances both the thrills and the emotions, culminating in a deeply satisfying resolution while promising lots more of Harvath in the foreseeable future.
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