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'Last Patriot' Offers Nonstop Thrill Ride

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By K. SUE COLLINS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 13, 2008

"The Last Patriot," by Brad Thor (Atria Books, $26)

The frontier of the spy thriller has evolved since Ian Fleming's James Bond ordered his first vodka martini. Brad Thor demonstrates just how much in "The Last Patriot," a nonstop action machine from the first to last page.

In Paris, former Covert Counterterrorism Operative Scot Harvath attempts to regain solace and a normal life with his girlfriend, when he bounces into action to save professor Anthony Nichols from a car bomb. From that moment on, Harvath regresses to the life he so willfully wished to be free of. Nichols possesses the ability to solve an ancient mystery, which would forever change the landscape in the war on terror.

Harvath learns of the conspiracy many will kill to protect. Entrusted with a clandestine mission from the president of the United States, Nichols and Harvath go on a journey from Paris to Washington in hot pursuit of a secret in Thomas Jefferson's original copy of Miguel de Cervantes's "Don Quixote," which has the possibility of bringing a 1,500-year-old mystery to an end. Their only hope is to expose the explosive enigma before assassin Matthew Dodd completes his assignment by eliminating all threats.

"The Last Patriot" marks the changing scope of the espionage novel in today's world. Thor concocts a thoroughly researched, high-fueled thrill ride. The adventure settles down only to provide the reader with the requisite intellectual conversations to propel the storyline forward in this "National Treasure" meets "The Bourne Identity" spy story.

K. Sue Collins of Tampa is a crime novelist.

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