The Apostle

June 29, 2009
At the start of bestseller Thor's less than convincing sixth Scot Harvath thriller (after The Last Patriot), Robert Alden, the new and naïve U.S. president, has just taken office with a landslide victory, due mainly to the assistance of strategist Stephanie Gallo, who "delivered the mainstream media for him on a silver platter." When Gallo's daughter, a doctor working in Afghanistan, is kidnapped, Gallo turns to Alden for help, and he, in turn, calls on Harvath, a former Navy SEAL and intelligence operative. Since the kidnappers are demanding the release of one of Osama bin Laden's lieutenants, Alden can't be seen to be negotiating with them. Thus Harvath must carry out his tricky assignment without official sanction. Meanwhile, Secret Service agent Elise Campbell, troubled by a conversation fragment she overheard indicating that Gallo has serious dirt on the president, launches an off-the-books inquiry into the pre-election death in a car accident of an attractive aide to Alden. The overseas rescue operation is more plausible than the stateside plot, but that's not saying much.

With bad weather, primitive conditions, and a brutal terrorist at large, Thor depicts some of the extreme dangers of Afghanistan. When a highly connected young doctor is taken prisoner by radicals, the new president finds himself blackmailed into taking action. Narrator Armand Schultz brings some much-needed humanity to this story of wisecracking tough guys and endless inventories of high-tech weaponry. He clearly delineates each member of a privately funded group of professionals sent in to extract the prisoner. Bringing the covert soldiers alive as individuals, Schultz gives them dimension and maintains listeners' interest D.G. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine


George Guidall takes the listener on a danger-filled adventure in Afghanistan, where covert operative Scott Horvath, now working in the private sector, attempts to free an American doctor who has been taken hostage. Horvath has been hired by a wealthy and powerful consultant whose election strategies put the new U.S. president in office. It's her daughter who has been kidnapped. Guidall's authoritative delivery keeps the action at a fever pitch--he clearly relishes the thrills of the story. Further, his ability to assign accents from a variety of cultures and keep them all distinct and matched to the characters is an added--and impressive--bonus. S.S.R. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine