Brad Thor Bibliography: 'Path of the Assassin'

In a "behind the scenes" video, Brad Thor brings up the notion that the hardest book for an author to write isn't the first, but the second.  He ascribes this to fear of what is known as the "sophomore slump", where an author's second entry just doesn't live up to what the first delivered.  Considering how "meh", I came away from his initial outing, "Lions of Lucerne", the idea of a slump did not entice me.

Thankfully, Thor's efforts to avert the trope paid off in spades, as this is a marked improvement over what came before.

The writing is stronger and tighter, the plot is more complex, and the stakes feel higher.  Even the villains feel more capable.  The Lions were a solid concept, but lacked in execution.  Here, we see the titular assassin confront Harvath a few times and actually get the drop on him more than once.  There's more tension as a result and it makes for a much more engaging read.

Harvath himself is also better depicted.  He still butts heads with superiors, but the fact that they're from other departments helps.  Sure, that's been done before too, but it still worked better.  He's also more in line with how he is in the latter half of "Lions", where his schmuckish tendencies became more subdued.  Really, the only scene where he came off as unlikable to me was when he accosted a CIA courier for no discernible reason.  The biggest problem I had with him here was the fact that a lot of his smart-aleck remarks weren't particularly funny.  He has a couple, but a lot of them fall flat; which is made worse by the fact that surrounding characters all react as if he's really pulling them off.

Harvath is joined by a new female compatriot.  His partner/love interest from "Lions" is sent off to make way for her.  Thankfully, while there is some flirtation/attraction, the two don't necessarily become a thing.  The book does end with Harvath thinking that he intends to keep her in his life, but it's a bit more ambiguous.  I think it works better this way.  If Harvath is going to have a rotating cast of sidekicks, it's better that they don't all become love interests.  It would get repetitive really quickly and harder to buy later on down the line.

There was a point where said character actually harbored a grudge against Scot and vowed never to trust him again.  They make amends later, but a part of me actually wanted to see the two part on bad terms.  It would have been an interesting subversion of the usual formula.  Maybe that'll happen later, who knows?

Normally, I'd say just skip the first book and jump right to this one.  Unfortunately, the plot of this one really does pick up where the first book left off.  The events play a much bigger role in what happens here than I expected.  In some ways, it's a good thing.  The events of each book matter and there is a building continuity.  On the other hand, I found "Lions" underwhelming, and having this be more self contained could have worked to its advantage as a stand alone thriller.

Still, this was a fun read.  I think it does a much better job showing off Thor's talents as an author and I'm definitely more excited to progress through the series now than I was after the first book.




                                                       












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