Brad Thor brings the thunder with Black Ice, a lightning quick read filled with international intrigue, ass kickings and blossoming love. What more can you ask for?
Black Ice finds our hero Scot Harvath hanging out in Norway on a much-deserved vacation with his new paramour, Solvi. While wrestling with the convergence of his professional obligations and his personal desires, Harvath thinks he sees a man he killed years ago walking around Oslo. Not one to let things go, he starts an investigation that leads to bigger concerns involving Russia and China. In Harvath’s world, no good can come from those two countries commingling. Summoning his team for support, Harvath must stop at nothing to uncover the truth and risk everything to prevent the joint Chinese/Russian operation from being successful.
In Black Ice, Harvath’s operation is more investigative in nature versus the high-octane action fans are used to seeing from him. However, it fits perfectly with where Harvath is at this point in his life. His days of constant door kicking are over, replaced with leveraging his vast knowledge and expertise to unravel nefarious plots and lead his capable team to thwart evildoers. Though as we see in Black Ice, Harvath’s still quite the badass and more than capable of stepping in to dole out the occasional ass whooping to the bad guys when the situation warrants.
One of the best parts of Black Ice is seeing Harvath undergo deep personal introspection. Not something you typically expect a world class operator to do, but it’s a critical and relatable part of the story. Harvath comes to understand and accept that protecting the United States is more than a job or a sense of duty and honor. It’s a passion that flows through his blood like hot lava, continuously igniting the fire to defend the country he so deeply loves. It’s unapologetically who he is, and he will never give it up. At the same time, he’s realizing that he has space in his life to love something other than the job. And the beautiful, intelligent Solvi is that something. She completes Harvath, makes him feel worthy of her adoration and helps him recognize that he’s fully deserving of being happy despite all the tragedy in his past. For a character we’ve witnessed go through hell and back for twenty novels, it’s amazing that there’s more depth to explore with Harvath while he transitions between phases of his professional and personal life.
In addition to Harvath’s soul searching, Thor does a wonderful job of character development overall. We learn more about Solvi’s personality and her capabilities as an intelligence operative, both of which are completely badass. We see Harvath’s team in action, witnessing their talents in action as well as their good-natured ribbing that gives us a glimpse into who they are and how they mesh as a team. And we meet some new characters along the way that add tremendously to the story, specifically with Phillip Mercer. Mercer provides two stimulating aspects to Black Ice. First, he provides a fascinating glimpse into the past via a deep dive into Harvath’s mentor Reed Carlton’s days as an operator. Second, he acts as a blueprint for Harvath’s future – dedicate your life to your country, hang it up when it’s time, then marry a Norwegian woman and live happily ever after.
The result is an intriguing, fast paced novel with depth that both entertains the reader and facilitates Harvath’s transition to the next phase of his life. Highly enjoyable, Black Ice is another winner by Brad Thor that’s sure to top the New York Times bestseller list.
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