Foreign Agent, Brad Thor, author; Armand Schultz, narrator
This is the sixteenth book the series featuring Scot Harvath.
When Ashleigh Foster, a CIA officer from the United States Embassy, convinces a couple of her friends to take an unsanctioned leave to visit her boyfriend, Ken Berglund at a remote desert safe house for a steak dinner with all of the accoutrements, she has no idea what horror awaits them. The men at the outpost were on a secret mission, and the women who came to share their evening, were in for a nasty surprise when they were attacked by Isis forces. The mystery is the how and why of the attack. Theoretically, the soldiers were not even supposed to be there. Who knew that these men were on a high level secret mission for the CIA, to capture a high level Isis target? Did someone leak the information to their enemies? Was there a mole hiding in the agency?
After this horrific attack on the soldiers, leaving them all dead, followed by a brutal assault on the women, also leaving no survivors, more carnage followed. An attack on the Secretary of State, Devin, resulted in the murder of everyone in the motorcade. Who knew where the Secretary was going to be? When a third attack took place causing damage and injuries at the White House, when a woman blew herself up for the Islamic cause, Scot Harvath, charged with finding the mole, destroying the mastermind behind the attacks and stopping the carnage from continuing, springs into action.
Stage right, enter Sacha Baseyev. When he was just a child, he was taken hostage by Islamic terrorists, in a movie theater with over a thousand others. He witnessed the death of his family and hundreds of others. The Russians conceived of a scheme to use the survivors of that massacre to go after their enemies. Only one recruit remained after training, motivated by revenge, and that was Baseyev. All the others either failed out or chose to leave the program early. While Sacha was working for the Russians to create havoc and terror hoping to inspire the United States to become more involved in the fight against Isis, he was also killing those who were like the Islamic terrorists who murdered so many of the hostages. A good-looking man, he was charismatic, and he was able to persuade those vulnerable, who were seeking causes to bring them glory, to follow his lead. Chameleon-like, he fell easily into the different roles necessary to fulfill his assignments. He also was employed in a legitimate job which allowed him to travel freely, and was therefore very difficult to trace. He had no moral conscience and easily used and disposed of people with abandon after they served their purpose.
As the optics and scope of the terrorism scaled upward and spread outward, the stakes increased and it was imperative that those behind this heinous effort creating a path of tragedy and devastation in its wake, were brought to justice. Enter, the hero, Scott Harvath. He was just the man to bring this slaughter to an end, and bring the culprits to justice. He was the sleuth and sniper extraordinaire who also left death and destruction in his wake.
As the story bounces around and sub plots are added, including romantic interludes, the narrative attempts to engage the reader using historic massacres and current events, to keep it relevant, but it grows a bit confusing. Sometimes it is difficult to keep the facts of the story straight. There are so many characters with strange names it is really easy to get lost and drift away. On the whole, the author treated the women as frivolous, love objects who were not too responsible or bright, but rather had one thing on their minds in common with the men, sex, above all else. The men were only too happy to take advantage of their good fortune. Along with the Isis barbarians, they took their pleasure, albeit in a different way, when the opportunity arose. Perhaps I would have enjoyed the book a bit more in a print version because it would have been easier to follow. Sometimes a visual of a hard to pronounce name or place is easier to comprehend and remember, but I would have preferred that the women and soldiers were treated with a bit more honor and respect. They were portrayed as if they were irresponsible and unable to deal properly with the reality of war.