Brad Thor’s ‘Shadow of Doubt’ didn’t delight
In Brad Thor’s thriller “Shadow of Doubt” (Atria/Emily Bestler Books, 2024, 368 pages), the Russians are possibly threatening a nuclear reaction to the war in the Ukraine, a scandal involving spies and treason is about to engulf France and a Russian who has defected to Norway with a massive portfolio of secrets finds himself in danger of exposure and assassination.
In this 23rd novel featuring America’s toughest and most formidable spy, Scott Harvath, we travel back and forth from the White House and U.S. intelligence agencies to safe houses in Oslo and France to the bars and restaurants of Paris. We watch CIA analyst Maggie Thomas, who heads up the agency’s Russia House, use her wits and experience to try and decipher what the Russians are up to while at the same time trying to keep the president and his staff informed about an increasingly dire scenario. We accompany Karine Brunelle of France’s internal security organization and her former lover and cop, Vincent Gilbert, as they slowly unravel a catastrophic infiltration of the French government by Russian sympathizers and spies.
Meanwhile, ex-Navy SEAL and former C.I.A. operative Harvath flies to Norway after a tough mission in Ukraine to rejoin Solvi Kolstad, a woman whom he deeply loves. She, too, is involved in espionage, serving with the Norwegian Intelligence Service. The romantic reunion Harvath envisions with her comes to an abrupt end when the Russian defector in her custody, Leonid Grechko, becomes the prey of Russian agents determined to kill him.
Though many strands are woven into the plot of “Shadow of Doubt,” Thor handles them with aplomb and craft, creating a large tapestry made up of today’s headlines, details regarding intelligence agencies in four countries, modern weapons, drones, and top of the line surveillance devices, and much more. The complicated story is easily followed, with the action accelerated by the short chapters and the continual back and forth shifts from locales, characters and situations.
The Scott Harvath books are best-sellers. They are billed, and rightly so, as political thrillers. “Shadow of Doubt” tackles issues like the Ukraine War — the author clearly opposes the Russians — and depicts realistically the machinery of government, particularly the deep-state, shadowy intelligence agencies. Harvath is generally an admirable character, as are his fiancée, the men who fight alongside him and the others like Karine Brunelle and Maggie Thomas who are battling against Russian attacks on the West. Readers who have enjoyed the techno-thrillers of Tom Clancy and the shoot-outs of the Jack Reacher books will find satisfaction here.
For me, however, “Shadow of Doubt” will likely be my first and my last read in the Harvath saga. Here is a truncated list of the reasons I found this book annoying rather than entertaining.
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First, Harvath and his team, mostly ex-SEALs, are operating in France, but leave behind them a slew of dead Russians. They blow up the yacht of a corrupt Russian criminal and businessman, conduct an attempted assassination in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne that turns into a firefight and engage in another battle with more Russians near the end of the story. By the end of the story, I’d lost track of the number of dead, but it struck me that Harvath and his team, whatever their motivation, were committing crimes on French soil and were also endangering civilians by firing off hundreds of rounds. It was ridiculous.
Then there were the luxuries enjoyed by so many in the book. Spies, cops and bureaucrats dine in the finest restaurants, drink expensive bourbons, wines and coffees, and wear the latest fashions. Perhaps it’s the author’s attempt to add some James Bond sophistication to the story, but this epicurean tour soon seemed ludicrous. Considering the present economic condition of so many people these days, both here in America and abroad, this gourmandizing and self-indulgence was also insulting.
Finally, given the poor track record of intelligence agencies over the last half century from the Middle East to the Soviet Union to China, the efficiency and expertise with which these agents and those who work with them operate should strike us as laughable. Yes, this is a novel, not real life, but the contrast is glaring.
Now, to be fair, a review of your reviewer is in order. I long ago lost my zeal for most modern fiction. Maybe it’s the result of growing older, or pickier, but hand me stories with holes in them like this one, with parts that simply make no sense, and I lose interest fast. In “Shadow of Doubt,” for instance, the Russian oligarch who is destroyed along with his exquisite yacht leaves hundreds of millions of dollars to a mistress who secretly loathes him. His criminal background should have prepared him for the possibilities of an unexpected and violent death. Would he really leave such a fortune to her? If so, why? Readers need an explanation.
This latest addition to the Harvath saga has all the right high-tech gadgets and precise details to make it appear authentic, but “Shadow of Doubt” left me in no doubt that this is a fantasy novel and should be read that way.
(Jeff Minick reviews books and has written four of his own: two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust On Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning As I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)
