NEAR DARK

5 stars out of 5

For whatever reason, I've missed the last couple of

books in the Scot Harvath series - as in did not read. Not long after I started this one, I realized I've missed them like I miss long-lost friends. As Celine Dion sang, "It's all coming back to me now" - and I've vowed not to make the same mistake going forward.

What that boils down to, in book review terms, is that I absolutely loved this one. Maybe it's because I saw a less gung-ho, more circumspect Harvath, still reeling from events that happened in previous books. There was plenty of action, but it didn't seem as rough as usual, and I sensed that Harvath's heart wasn't really in it. Besides that, the author's sometimes lengthy diatribes against some issue or other were noticeable to me in their absence. Quite honestly, all that made this book more interesting to me, but I'll venture a guess that die-hard fans might not be quite as enthusiastic. My husband - also a fan of this series - just started reading this one, and I'll be interested to get his take.

As it begins, Harvath is drowning himself in his sorrows (more accurately, in substantial quantities of alcohol) in Key West when he gets bad news; a  beloved colleague has been tortured and murdered. The news gets even worse: apparently, someone is offering an almost unbelievably high bounty on his own head - to be paid to the first player to achieve success. Over his years working for the Carleton Group, which functions as a more clandestine CIA, Harvath has accumulated no shortage of enemies. But is it possible that the two bad news scenarios are somehow connected? 

Enter beautiful and well-skilled Norwegian agent Solvi Kolstad, also a protogee of Harvath's murdered colleague and an intelligence agent, who is on the warpath to find the man's killer. What's more, she wants to hook up with Harvath and put their heads together (with a hint that a few other body parts might be shared as well somewhere down the line). The trick, you see, will be ferreting out the colleague's murderer (and, depending on who that is, who ordered the hit) while avoiding the bounty hunters who will do almost anything to snuff out Harvath for good. The sometimes bloody trail takes him and Solvi to a few countries and a few narrow escapes and culminates, I must say, in an ending that's satisfying to some characters but not to others.

The conclusion to my review is a non-conclusion; I have no idea from whence my copy came. Most of the books I read I get as advance review copies from publishers via NetGalley, but this one - a hardcover edition - simply showed up in the mail with no accompanying documentation. I have a vague recollection of entering some kind of giveaway - possibly from Bookish First - but thus far I haven't been able to confirm it. So for now, all I can say is whoever you are, I thank you very much. 

Near Dark by Brad Thor (Atria/Emily Bestler Books, July 2020); 349 pp.