"Most enjoyable Brad Thor book"
"Book of the summer and of 2025!"
SPOILER WARNING: Be sure to read Edge of Honor before listening to our breakdown of the 24th book in the Scot Harvath series by Brad Thor!
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00:00:21
Hey, guys, I'm Chris. And I'm Mike.
00:00:24
Welcome back to this week's No Limits the Thriller podcast.
00:00:28
How you doing today, Mike? Great, not only because I love
00:00:32
this book, but I got my wing man back.
00:00:35
I'm back. He's here.
00:00:37
He's back from the dead. Yes.
00:00:38
Sorry I left you in your time of need last week. 2 interviews,
00:00:41
two of them. I'm disappointed to miss two big
00:00:43
interviews, but you know, things happened.
00:00:47
Yeah, I fell for you because not only everything you had going
00:00:50
on, but I knew you'd want to talk to Brad and Kyle like 2 big
00:00:53
ones we look forward to every year.
00:00:55
And yeah, I'm sorry you couldn't be there with me, but you will
00:00:59
definitely be back next year when we talk to them again.
00:01:01
Yes, yes, yes, yes it was. I'm I'm excited to listen to
00:01:06
your your brat interview as well as your Kyle interview, which
00:01:09
boast boast recently dropped, right.
00:01:11
Sure. Yeah, they're both out now, so
00:01:14
spoilers. That's why I'm glad you waited
00:01:17
on the Edge of Honor interview, because I loved it.
00:01:19
But we we do talk about a number of the characters in the plot
00:01:22
points, so I didn't want to release that until publication
00:01:25
day. People who had an early advance
00:01:27
copy could listen right away, but now a few weeks later, you
00:01:30
know, like yourself and others coming around to finish the
00:01:33
book. I really hope you can get back
00:01:35
to that interview. If you haven't listened yet, now
00:01:37
that you finished Edge of Honor, because you wouldn't be
00:01:39
listening to this. We are going to spoil Edge of
00:01:41
Honor here today. Go deep into the nitty gritty
00:01:44
and break it down. And Chris, I, I gave some hot
00:01:47
takes in that interview. You probably saw them on some
00:01:50
things I've been posting. This is the most enjoyable Brad
00:01:55
Thor book in my. I know you, I, I saw a little
00:01:58
bit of your, your snippets that on, on our social media.
00:02:01
I got to know though, do you agree with any part of that?
00:02:03
Trying to to avoid as much, you know, kind of keep keep my game
00:02:07
face on, you know, I love the two, Mike.
00:02:14
OK. Dude, I I think that this you
00:02:19
had. Me sweating bro.
00:02:22
This series needed. I don't, I don't want to call it
00:02:24
a refresh but just like something.
00:02:26
A little shot in the. New something different this
00:02:30
Harkins back to like how different, you know, deadfall
00:02:34
and and rising tiger were. But like brings us back into the
00:02:38
element and you know, Scott in DC we are we were in the thick
00:02:43
of it. And also just very interesting
00:02:47
choice to, you know, have him leave the Carlton group, have
00:02:51
him be on the outside. We we know like immediately he's
00:02:56
like, all right, who can I get? And none, none of his team is
00:03:00
there and you know, so who do we have to call on?
00:03:02
But you know, 22 reliable stalwarts love hanging out with
00:03:06
McGee and Haney. That's amazing.
00:03:08
It's amazing multiple. Action scenes crazy the plot in
00:03:13
this is absolutely insane yes, you know and I I think you could
00:03:21
it could have gone like one of two ways by like trying to mix
00:03:24
this faction of like, you know, bringing in our current
00:03:27
political environment, giving in, you know the the Taco of it
00:03:31
all. If you want to say that, and I
00:03:34
don't know it's just interesting, but I felt like he
00:03:36
played the game and like well enough that like, you know
00:03:39
literally both sides could you know very much how like Kyle
00:03:43
would do it where like you, you could write somebody and the
00:03:46
person if if you if you hate Republicans, the person's a
00:03:48
Democrat or if you hate he's a Republican.
00:03:50
If you hate Democrats, the person's a Democrat right and so
00:03:54
and then having this whole deep state thing with, you know,
00:03:57
right as these Epstein file like situation is going Oh my God, it
00:04:01
couldn't have dropped at a perfect time.
00:04:03
And I love the backdrop of America, 4th of July, Yes,
00:04:08
singing, you know, ending with the final, you know, jump, jump
00:04:11
into the final scene. Anyone that final scene, the
00:04:13
cover of this book and just being in our nation's capital
00:04:17
and, you know, being able to explore.
00:04:21
Yeah. We don't go like, too, too far
00:04:23
into it. But like, you know, we go to
00:04:25
Bishopsgate, which is right next to Mount Vernon.
00:04:27
Like, you know, it's it's such it's all tied together.
00:04:30
Loved this book? God, what a relief.
00:04:35
I wasn't sure. You were like Stone Cold, not
00:04:38
giving me a read. You weren't like jiving with my
00:04:40
hot takes. I was kind of like egging you on
00:04:42
in text just to kind of tease out what you thought You.
00:04:45
You held fast. You held the line.
00:04:47
I was getting nervous. I can't agree with you more.
00:04:51
This book is just a refresh. I mean, I categorize it as these
00:04:57
ones and Brad didn't like my my opinion on this too much, but
00:05:01
it's like when the Apostle was doing something different by
00:05:04
keeping us in Afghanistan on the ground with Scott and building
00:05:07
an awesome team or Deadfall, like you said, we're in Ukraine.
00:05:12
There's like 1 mission, 1 storyline.
00:05:14
Everything's around building around that.
00:05:17
This book is the DC book. It's like it's and I, and I'm a
00:05:21
sucker for that, absolute sucker for everything DC, especially
00:05:24
someone like Brad who knows his stuff, knows it inside and out,
00:05:28
isn't just going to go to the Jefferson Memorial, the
00:05:31
Washington Monument, the Capitol building.
00:05:33
Like he goes to parts of DC. You wouldn't know unless you're
00:05:37
a local, you know, and gets them all right and explains them
00:05:39
well. So the DC stuff is hitting.
00:05:42
You mentioned the callbacks, Haney and McGee are are only the
00:05:46
tip of the iceberg. We've got Rodgers.
00:05:49
That's a deep cut the black. Guys are backlash.
00:05:52
The czar from Backlash, the hostages are the one who
00:05:55
basically saved Scott is able to pull strings in Washington and
00:05:59
and read the landscape so perfectly to get him out of
00:06:01
Siberia. He comes in, he owes a favor.
00:06:05
All of Solvi's connections going back four or five books from the
00:06:09
moment we meet her, it's like her friend Bang, who brings the
00:06:12
the lutefisk. And it's like all these little
00:06:16
I, I, I just love all these little details.
00:06:18
Because when, when her friend who was on the protection detail
00:06:22
from the Prime Minister brings her a package and it's all
00:06:24
weapons, it says Solvi opens up a something little special that
00:06:28
she asked her to slip in there and it was the lutefisk and it
00:06:32
was like perfect. That that's revealed at the end.
00:06:35
I just feel like this is an incredible but oh, not to
00:06:38
mention you said the America stuff.
00:06:40
This book. I described it with Brad.
00:06:42
I was like, it's like eating apple pie, you know, having a
00:06:45
hot dog and a beer it on the 4th of July.
00:06:47
And Can you imagine if the paperback cover.
00:06:50
I don't expect this if it's the picture that Solvy took of him
00:06:54
raising the flag. That's a bad gate.
00:06:57
That was cool. That was, that was a little
00:06:58
treat, Yeah. I am just picturing a silhouette
00:07:01
of Scott maybe even giving a salute, the flag going up the
00:07:04
pole, the dock in the background, maybe even you see a
00:07:08
bit of Bishopsgate like the the facade of the church.
00:07:11
I just enjoyed this book so much.
00:07:15
So just to clarify, I don't think I would say this is the
00:07:19
best Scott Harvath book. I I wouldn't say it's like the
00:07:22
most important one in the series.
00:07:25
It's like this groundbreaking 1, but I'm saying most enjoyable in
00:07:29
the sense that it's a pretty light read compared to some of
00:07:32
Brad's other works. You go back to Lions, right?
00:07:34
It's like a tome. It's huge.
00:07:36
And and you have to do the legwork.
00:07:38
You mentally have to be so totally switched on to track all
00:07:42
those storylines. And we're globe hopping and
00:07:44
globe trotting. And here we don't need to do the
00:07:47
globe trotting because the story is so tight and everyone is tied
00:07:51
back intermittently to what's going on in DC.
00:07:54
We don't need random globe hopping.
00:07:56
I just think everything is done so well.
00:07:59
You could put your feet up, kick back, relax and enjoy this book
00:08:02
because even his other best one backlash, it's like too heavy at
00:08:07
times where it's like, it's a better book, I would say in
00:08:10
terms of the writing of a novel and the thrill of it all.
00:08:14
But it's so heavy to read because you're just emotionally
00:08:17
invested in what Scott's going through and the way he's dying
00:08:20
constantly the entire time and he's hanging on a thread.
00:08:23
You don't know what happens to him.
00:08:24
It's like a different it's a different style of book.
00:08:28
So I think that one and lions to me, are still maybe better
00:08:31
overall novels, but this one is so tight and so crisp and so
00:08:37
badass America that it just makes it even more enjoyable
00:08:40
just to read. It's it's a perfect beach read,
00:08:43
but it's also a very complex book.
00:08:46
Yeah, and I think like you said, it's, it's just, there's no
00:08:50
fluff. Like I, I was really trying to
00:08:52
like come up with, you know what, if anything didn't make
00:08:57
sense. What, what would you cut out?
00:08:59
What could you cut out? What did, what did Brad throw an
00:09:02
extra in? I was struggling to come up with
00:09:04
some things. I I think, you know, maybe you
00:09:06
could nitpick a little bit, but to me, what this does is
00:09:11
following up on the storyline of Edge of Honor or of Shadow of
00:09:16
Doubt, which me and you weren't super high on, you know, where
00:09:22
that one fell flat. This one like kind of raises
00:09:24
that up by like bringing in, you know, the ultimately, like the,
00:09:27
the the one of the grand in the cabal is, you know, the
00:09:34
blackmailer from the CIA basically that last book and,
00:09:37
you know, wrapping that up. Yeah.
00:09:39
And I just think like, like I said at the beginning, like it
00:09:41
just takes us into this new territory of Scott.
00:09:45
Like I'm, I'm super intrigued to see where we go, you know, in
00:09:48
the future. It it gives you enough to like,
00:09:50
all right, satisfy you in, in, in the moment.
00:09:54
I'm still hooked to the series, you know, like I, I still want
00:09:56
to see what's going on. Is he going to get back into the
00:09:58
Carlton group? Obviously there's probably
00:10:00
there's still other people out there that, you know, the
00:10:03
Russians, obviously that we're, we're going back to, to this
00:10:06
thing again. Yeah, I don't know.
00:10:09
I just it's propulsive. The pacing, right?
00:10:13
You asked me at the beginning, like was it too much to to rush
00:10:16
through it? Honestly, like I started it.
00:10:19
I didn't didn't get to start it until like Sunday, but I crushed
00:10:23
through it. Dude.
00:10:23
It it you, you know, I'm driving to a book when it's hard for me
00:10:29
to like do my work, you know, at the computer and, and, and like
00:10:33
be listening And but I was so enjoying it so much that I was
00:10:36
just like, don't tell my bosses. But I turned it on and then I
00:10:38
like kind of just just get lost and then I'll come back in, turn
00:10:41
it off to the all right, I'm going to enjoy.
00:10:43
I have an hour ride home. I have an hour left.
00:10:45
Let me enjoy that like on the ride home and arm again.
00:10:50
Armand Schultz can't, Can't Sing my praises like this.
00:10:54
He does a great job. Oh my.
00:10:56
And when he's doing the podcasters voice it's like
00:10:58
exactly that. Like smarmy Alex.
00:11:02
Jones mixed with Tucker Carlson. Tucker Carlson.
00:11:06
Little bit of Rogan like it's just all these like, but without
00:11:10
naming any of them, right? Like you said, you're not
00:11:11
pissing off the left, you're not pissing off the right.
00:11:13
He's not conservative, not a liberal.
00:11:14
It's just you're using the modern day political landscape,
00:11:19
commenting on it without being needlessly inflammatory.
00:11:24
You know, you're creating such a parallel parallelism to it that
00:11:28
allows you to make a point. Some really good points, very
00:11:31
anti white supremacist points. And it doesn't have to be broken
00:11:37
down along political lines just to get clicks.
00:11:39
It's not clickbait. It's telling a story that very
00:11:42
much mirrors our reality without being our reality.
00:11:45
You know, like some books like Deadfall, like Zelensky shows
00:11:48
up, you know, and other books we read like Putin's in it.
00:11:51
And I think Brad just handles so well in this one.
00:11:57
This feels like the real DC hard, insider hardball.
00:12:00
It sounds like the real social fabric of America being torn
00:12:03
asunder and all of that being manipulated, political opinions,
00:12:08
even voting decisions being manipulated by Russian
00:12:12
disinformation or propaganda. Then that's also being
00:12:15
infiltrated at the highest levels with this, this mole,
00:12:18
this agent sleeping with a senator who's very much driving
00:12:21
the cabal, the politics, one upping each other.
00:12:24
The senator wants to get in. They want to move the vice
00:12:27
president up. They want to get rid of a
00:12:28
populist president. I mean, just look at that, a
00:12:31
populist president. You mentioned the Epstein's
00:12:33
files. It was on her desk and now it
00:12:38
doesn't exist. Like that just broke today.
00:12:40
And literally in this book, in the speech, the podcasters going
00:12:43
off on like you were elected by Americans who believed you would
00:12:46
do something. You didn't follow through in
00:12:48
that promise. Now we're going to take you out
00:12:49
of power. Holy crap, that just mirrors our
00:12:52
reality so well. I was going to bring that up
00:12:54
too. I think it's interesting like
00:12:57
that this book comes out at this time.
00:12:58
You know, it's these authors are so good at it's crazy stranger
00:13:02
than fiction, right? That's what what Kyle writes.
00:13:06
You're seeing it a little bit with especially on, you know,
00:13:11
the hard right right wing right now where they're upset with Pam
00:13:15
Bondi and and and with Cash Patel and with Dan Bongino.
00:13:22
And they haven't quite gotten to like where, you know, Trump's at
00:13:26
fault yet. But you could easily see how you
00:13:28
know if, especially if he's now pissing off Putin by maybe he
00:13:34
might even give you just keep giving Ukraine's missiles.
00:13:37
Like you could see where like, oh, his base is like he they
00:13:41
were already pissed off about the the Iraq like bombing.
00:13:44
They didn't want to get him to get involved.
00:13:46
They like, it's funny how like all these things are coming.
00:13:49
Like dude. NATO summit.
00:13:50
Exactly. The whole thing is around a NATO
00:13:52
summit and if we should essentially build an Iron Dome
00:13:55
for NATO, how how in tune is that with this red actually be?
00:14:01
Loving it what's going on right now like to mimic the like
00:14:07
almost like beat for beat. What's going on?
00:14:09
It's I mean, obviously it's not, you know, I hope to God we don't
00:14:13
have, you know, these neo Nazi, you know, like some false flag
00:14:16
attacks that are being planned like that would be.
00:14:18
That's obviously all. I'm not hoping that, but you
00:14:20
know, you could easily, I could easily see where who knows what
00:14:25
happens? You put out all this social
00:14:27
media stuff and then you gets pressure like he wants to.
00:14:30
I don't know who, who, who's to know what, what could happen?
00:14:33
Or even another one. The Secret Service and
00:14:35
protection details getting cut this book.
00:14:38
Is all I, I feel like that I that I could definitely feel
00:14:41
like the exploitation of like, you know, the downfalls of the,
00:14:44
the, the election, right, Like, you know, the assassination tap
00:14:48
on Trump, like, you know, and that was pointed out because
00:14:50
they they didn't have enough Social Security or Secret
00:14:53
Service. Secret Service, but they're so
00:14:55
exactly they're cutting down numbers and budget for budgetary
00:14:58
purposes. And is that affecting their
00:15:00
their ready state of readiness? But then also you're maybe
00:15:04
politically deciding who gets protection, who doesn't, and
00:15:08
then you're revoking it from people from prior
00:15:10
administrations who may legally deserve it or maybe for safety
00:15:14
reasons and threat assessments may need it.
00:15:17
Around the corner for me was Kathleen Hicks, the the I
00:15:21
believe she was deputy or Under Secretary of the Army.
00:15:24
She had a high DoD position and there were always 4 SU VS 24/7
00:15:31
on the block around the corner, running engines running staffed
00:15:36
24/7, 2 in the back of the house, 2 in the front of the
00:15:38
house. And then literally I see in the
00:15:40
news like protection details are being pulled.
00:15:43
Haven't seen those SU VS since. And it's like I'm reading about
00:15:46
that in the story with Rogers being chased through Rock Creek
00:15:49
Park. He lost his protection detail
00:15:52
and it's just unbelievable to realize that's going around me,
00:15:56
you know, like literally down my block there, the impacts of this
00:15:59
and not to mention the Iran connection or Iran.
00:16:02
Connection. He suspects it's fallout from
00:16:04
the Soleimani attack. We recently just had it with the
00:16:08
nuclear attack. You know, there was going to be
00:16:11
retaliation for that. And another one, he's going,
00:16:15
he's reaching back even further. Brendan Rodgers thought they're
00:16:20
going after everyone in that picture on the Security Council,
00:16:23
which made me think of the Osama bin Laden raid, the picture of
00:16:27
the team. Of the teams.
00:16:28
Sitting in the in the situation room or one of the conference
00:16:33
rooms off the situation room. And I'm just like imagining
00:16:36
these terrorists sitting there with that exact picture putting
00:16:39
XS on people's faces, you know? And they think like, this is all
00:16:43
being sponsored by Iran. And holy crap.
00:16:47
Stranger than Fiction is what Kyle calls it.
00:16:49
But I call it for Brad the Straight Outta because he posts
00:16:52
an article and says like straight out of Edge of Honor,
00:16:54
straight out of Black guys, the Straight Outta series by Brad
00:16:58
Thor. I don't even think I covered all
00:17:00
of them because I wrote down like 7 different things from the
00:17:03
straight outta there was Sky Shield which is the version of
00:17:07
the Iron Dome for NATO. I was thinking Star Wars, you
00:17:10
know, go right in the Cold War. We go back even further.
00:17:13
Isn't there something in the big beautiful bill that that has
00:17:16
that has the money for that? The big beautiful bill is
00:17:18
pushing that. The podcaster we talked about
00:17:21
that cuts at, oh, the probationary employees.
00:17:25
Right. That that was a big thing in the
00:17:27
in January, February, yeah. Right.
00:17:28
The CIA ground branch guys are all taking this odd job to work
00:17:32
for this kook because they all got cut.
00:17:36
All because, and it happened to one of my friends, he works for
00:17:40
Fish and Wildlife and he has like 12 years of government
00:17:44
service, an equivalent position, but he moved to a new department
00:17:47
and because he was new to that department, he automatically
00:17:50
became one of the probate probationary guys who got cut.
00:17:53
He got slashed. A lower court ruled an
00:17:55
injunction against that. He got reinstated.
00:17:58
Just today the Supreme Court revoked that injunction and now
00:18:02
said you can go back to firing them.
00:18:04
And so it's just like people are ping pong balls and in this book
00:18:08
we're seeing that exact thing happened.
00:18:09
But those guys go work for the enemy and have no other option
00:18:13
but to go join this, you know, dark team doing this thing.
00:18:18
So I said, oh, hail, hail was the guy that they roll up at the
00:18:23
river estate, which Nicholas, dude, I, I want to get your
00:18:27
reaction. But just a minute.
00:18:28
They roll up hail and they find out he smuggled these weapons
00:18:31
from Mexico where there was this depot and they said it blew up
00:18:35
and everything was gone, but secretly he smuggled it to use
00:18:38
for this operation. I'm thinking fast and furious.
00:18:41
Sure. Yeah, yeah.
00:18:42
Yeah, like Mexico weapons getting lost, like falling into
00:18:45
the wrong hands. I'm like the straight out of
00:18:48
ripped from the headlines that Brad is packing into this book
00:18:52
and every one of them is realistic.
00:18:54
It's the buy in score for me. 5 + + + 5 out of five.
00:18:58
I'm buying on this. Nice.
00:19:01
Nicholas, what do you think of that?
00:19:04
I lost my mind. Yeah.
00:19:06
I I well, first of all, like, harkening back to like when he
00:19:09
first rode, when we first saw him, like riding Argos.
00:19:13
He rides Argos, right? Or I think Argos was shot and he
00:19:16
rides Draco. Yeah.
00:19:17
So just like, you know, doing that.
00:19:19
And I was kind of disappointed last book when he said that, you
00:19:24
know, he's he couldn't go out in the field anymore.
00:19:26
And then in the beginning of this novel, you know, he's
00:19:28
sticking to his guns. But in the end, you know, Scott
00:19:31
got him to do what he needed to do.
00:19:33
You know, I'm glad. It's glad to see that you know
00:19:37
Nicholas will be there mostly. As long as Scott provides those
00:19:41
babysitting hours, you know he'll, he'll compensate him.
00:19:44
I love that at the end. That was a great touch.
00:19:46
Yeah. And it's, you know, like it's
00:19:48
changing dynamics, right. You know, it was interesting to
00:19:51
see that Gary Lawler is off on vacation and he's supposed to be
00:19:53
running the the, he's kind of running the Carlton, not really
00:19:57
running the Carlton. It's really Nicholas.
00:19:59
Yeah, it's it's, it's super intriguing and.
00:20:02
You know why? Why the hard shift with Brad or
00:20:06
with with with Scott like? He's out.
00:20:09
He's just done. He got the the whole.
00:20:11
The whole CIA. Thing.
00:20:13
Yeah, like Holiday Hayes wasn't in this one.
00:20:15
That's an interesting choice. But yeah, she was forced to
00:20:18
blackmail him. He also got the money.
00:20:20
He cut the deal with the Russian oligarchs wife.
00:20:22
So he's got the 50 mil and and Brad called that the supermodel
00:20:26
problem. You know, why are you going to
00:20:27
get out of the bed and go work for the man?
00:20:28
You know, money has a whole different meaning.
00:20:32
Work has a whole different meaning now.
00:20:35
And he wants his life with Salvi.
00:20:37
And so this was this was a real interesting move where Scott
00:20:40
could have been out of the game, out of the CIA because he's
00:20:42
pissed at them. Doesn't need to work for the
00:20:45
Carlton group anymore. He's kind of made unless there's
00:20:48
a threat that requires his skill set.
00:20:49
I'm sure he'd come back in to save the day, but he could be
00:20:53
out. He and Salvi could be made in
00:20:54
the shade. And this one that this one
00:20:57
bought me into. Why each of them were where they
00:21:01
needed to be. Yeah, exactly why they were
00:21:02
brought back in and why something in Shadow of Doubt and
00:21:05
even Deadfall and maybe even before that.
00:21:07
We were saying this. Scott and Solvy just haven't
00:21:10
done enough together yet. Like, they kind of had reasons
00:21:15
to go their own way. And Solvy just disappears into
00:21:17
the background. She'll have one cool action
00:21:19
scene. Even the last book where she was
00:21:21
that bad. Action scene.
00:21:23
You know, yeah, they weren't really together and they weren't
00:21:25
together. They they weren't really
00:21:26
together in this book either, but I felt like it was way more
00:21:28
connected. It was intertwined, I agree.
00:21:31
And Scott was so close with the Norwegian delegation and they
00:21:34
were kind of working together and the opening scene right at
00:21:36
the Norwegian residence and Ambassador house.
00:21:39
So I think the two of them operating together but also
00:21:43
having personal time together was handled perfectly here.
00:21:46
Yeah, no, for sure. Perfect.
00:21:50
I think it sets them up to be like this dynamic.
00:21:52
Do you know like obviously Brad setting it up to, you know, have
00:21:56
this Russian connection and and where are we going to go next
00:21:59
with them? Obviously they're they're
00:22:00
pulling the strings. Thought for sure we were going
00:22:04
to get that. What was her name?
00:22:06
The the the mole like it. But at the very end it was it
00:22:09
was referenced that her throat was slashed.
00:22:11
I I thought like. She was stumble, yeah.
00:22:14
Yeah, I thought for sure she was going to play a role in in in
00:22:17
the next books. But you know, we'll, we'll have
00:22:18
to see. Yeah, she was.
00:22:22
Yeah, I don't know. I kind of want to get in the
00:22:24
scorecard and talk about like some of these more specific
00:22:27
action sequences. I agree we have to talk action.
00:22:31
I think I'm going to go 9 out of 10.
00:22:37
I was going to 9.5. I was, I'm toying with 9.5.
00:22:40
Yeah, you know what? I have to go 9.5.
00:22:42
The only reason I'm not giving it a 10 is there were like 4
00:22:48
really good ones that stand out to me.
00:22:52
I could have maybe used like 4 1/2 of these scenes, like just a
00:22:55
tad more action or maybe take an action scene that wraps up
00:22:59
really quickly and draw it out just a little more.
00:23:02
But the ones that stand out to me, the opening scene, of
00:23:05
course, is a very good one. But my top 2 favorites, the hit
00:23:10
on Rodgers, McLean House. Yeah, that when Haney McGee and
00:23:14
him hold down the Fort. And then my absolute favorite
00:23:17
was Solvie on the highway at the Dulles Toll Road taking out the
00:23:20
sniper. Those ones just are amazing to
00:23:23
me. Yeah, and they're both, you
00:23:26
know, super unique. You got Scott in in one
00:23:28
situation. You know, you've seen him in
00:23:32
that situation before, but he generally has more hands, like
00:23:34
more, you know, he's he's having a MacGyver him, you know, his
00:23:38
way through this and, you know, having two bad asses side by
00:23:42
side, like it's just, you know, they're able to execute
00:23:44
awesomely. Nicholas drone and then the
00:23:48
other one. Oh yeah, those little drones
00:23:49
were cool. You know, the other scene, I
00:23:51
feel like we've seen that before, like a hit on a
00:23:53
motorcade. Wasn't there one in the in the
00:23:55
last book? There were two books ago.
00:23:57
I forget, but yeah. But this one to me was just way
00:24:02
more intense and I guess drawing in like not having Brad there in
00:24:09
the beginning, you know, like, yeah, exactly.
00:24:11
Keep on interchanging. Sorry, not having Scott there
00:24:13
and having focused on Salvi and get really getting to see her in
00:24:17
action. She does that in Shadow of
00:24:19
Doubt. Do you remember?
00:24:20
She has the defector in that house like she has her moment to
00:24:24
shine. But this one felt so much more
00:24:26
personal to Scott because he was almost playing that support role
00:24:30
for her. It's it's like she was the one
00:24:33
still going down range and exposing herself, and he was the
00:24:35
one back home trying to play that supportive spousal role.
00:24:40
And now he's the one worrying about her and he has to rush to
00:24:42
the scene. They fly in on the choppers,
00:24:44
even though everything's wrapped up and done.
00:24:46
He wasn't in the action, but he was totally impacted by the
00:24:49
action. And I thought that was unique
00:24:51
for your protagonist. Yeah, and he's the one that
00:24:53
talks to Gage, right? Who, you know, ultimately, he's
00:24:58
not a not a bad guy, but, you know, that's how some of the
00:25:00
leaked information comes, comes through.
00:25:03
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Gains.
00:25:06
I was hoping he was good. I did not want him to be bad.
00:25:09
Yeah, there was like at one point it was tipping like there
00:25:12
was, there was too many like bad guys like in multiple situations
00:25:18
or in like, you know, throughout all these organizations, like, I
00:25:23
don't know. I was just, that was the
00:25:24
toughest thing for me to get over in a sense.
00:25:27
Because we've seen Scott with the CIA with, I mean, not I
00:25:33
guess the CIA is probably the easiest to believe that you
00:25:34
could have bad actors because we we've had that in other novels.
00:25:37
But the Secret Service we we've only really had I guess lions,
00:25:42
right, where, you know, there was one like major player in the
00:25:45
Secret Service. And we've had other times where
00:25:47
FBI, you know, what was it that Joel?
00:25:52
Joel Wilson in the Trap. Yeah, he was a bad guy, but he
00:25:55
wasn't. Oh, yeah, that's in the trap.
00:25:56
But like, we've seen like that, you know, instance where like
00:25:59
it's the FBI he's being played and whatnot.
00:26:02
But to just to have the Secret Service like legit be bad,
00:26:05
especially in that one. Like, it reminded me of the
00:26:08
scene from Captain America, the elevator, The elevator scene
00:26:11
where like 4 Secret Service agents get on and they all,
00:26:15
they're all jittery. And then, you know, they try to
00:26:18
take out and Scott's able to take them out real quick.
00:26:20
Yeah. A total Captain America.
00:26:21
That's. Exactly what I thought of.
00:26:23
Yeah, yeah, just the breath of of of the bad actors among, you
00:26:28
know, the the heroes was just was crazy.
00:26:32
And that's going to take us into bad guys.
00:26:34
We'll get to in a bit. But I I kind of like this idea.
00:26:38
It it was almost one too many people and names, but I like the
00:26:42
idea that it was like the tentacles of the people pulling
00:26:46
the strings. So like when the Russians
00:26:48
created this whole plot, what they call black line to
00:26:51
basically underwrite Americans confidence in the government and
00:26:56
they're Co opting the Senator Blackwell.
00:26:59
Is that his name? They kind of have to have their
00:27:01
tentacles everywhere, right? You can't just have some bad guy
00:27:04
at the FBI and think your job is done.
00:27:07
They needed a Secret Service plan to CIA plant.
00:27:10
So I feel like it just shows the the depth of penetration of the
00:27:14
Russians operation like old school KGB style shit for them
00:27:18
to have been able to have turned to this many people and have
00:27:21
their fingers everywhere and and I think that elevated it.
00:27:24
So yeah, one too many names, particularly when you add the
00:27:28
white supremacist bad guys at the very end, then we get like
00:27:32
another two or three names who are connected as the bad guys.
00:27:36
So, yeah. And then we.
00:27:38
Also have Hale who's like he's the CIA ground branch guy who
00:27:42
was obviously corrupt. Like right?
00:27:44
Running that team. Running that team, yeah.
00:27:48
So to me, like by themselves, they were all like, fine, but
00:27:51
then in my head like I was just. It was a little bit too hard to.
00:27:55
Yeah, you then had Kennedy and Kennedy and Marshall as well.
00:27:58
Kennedy was the guy. Carolyn and Fields anew in the
00:28:01
FBI who, who was the bad guy? They got a bad rub.
00:28:04
And then Marshall was Russ Gaines's secretary, assistant
00:28:10
secretary, if you will, and yeah, he was all giddy and he
00:28:13
was bad. Maybe one too many in that
00:28:15
regard. Maybe.
00:28:17
But that's a small nitpick from that.
00:28:18
That takes villains to like a 4 1/2.
00:28:21
I think it's only half pointing for that.
00:28:24
Yeah, I'd say so. Yeah, we can.
00:28:26
We can. Let's put 4 1/2 for bad guys.
00:28:28
Yeah. And I think with all the action
00:28:29
though, I'm absolutely a nine and a half.
00:28:32
One other thing that that. Took the Naval Observatory scene
00:28:35
you mentioned. The opening scene like that one
00:28:37
was freaking awesome I guess. What a way to start the book.
00:28:39
Oh yeah, like come out guns blazing.
00:28:43
That's everything I wanted in an opening. 2 chapters everything.
00:28:47
And then I guess some of the smaller action scenes are the
00:28:50
infiltration onto the complex to to capture hail.
00:28:55
Yep, well, Carolina fields the gym when they go to the gym.
00:29:00
And the the gym scene, the guy pulls a gun and she's she's
00:29:02
quick on the trigger. Yeah.
00:29:05
And the Convention Center scene at the very end, you know, it's
00:29:10
going to be the sarin gas, you know, and, and Scott's, you
00:29:13
know, intertwined with that is the whole Captain America scene.
00:29:15
Yeah. I don't know.
00:29:16
It just, it was a lot. And it's all paced out pretty
00:29:19
well. Those last few though, the hit
00:29:22
on the final, there's almost 2 complexes at the end, but the
00:29:25
big one in Elkton, VA to get the I think Jordan, Jacob Jordan I
00:29:31
think was his name, that one. A little longer.
00:29:36
I yeah, I wanted a little more out of that.
00:29:38
And then we rushed to the Convention Center as well.
00:29:41
And that one, when we're doing the sarin gas, it's like all
00:29:43
this packed into the very end without a whole lot of kind of
00:29:46
build up or explanation. If we knew a little something
00:29:49
about chemical weapons leading up to this, like there was
00:29:52
residue or they were cylinders transferred or they found
00:29:55
materials, you know, in the white supremacist houses and
00:29:58
they were prepping the stuff, I think there could have been a
00:30:00
little bit more of a through line instead of boom, it's a
00:30:03
chemical attack coming out of the blue.
00:30:06
All that, yeah. Because the only way they're
00:30:07
able to piece that together is that they see these noodles.
00:30:10
Yeah, like, and then quickly pivot to like that.
00:30:14
That's where I'm like getting. It's a little thin, a little
00:30:16
thin, but that's the half a point for me on ACT.
00:30:20
OK, maybe that's also half a point on plot then.
00:30:23
I think so too. 95. And did you like the whole like
00:30:28
bringing in white supremacists, like the that that aspect of it?
00:30:32
You know, I, I thought it was a good way to address the Russians
00:30:36
can't just basically do everything right.
00:30:39
Have Russian operatives have CIA ground branch guys Co opted to
00:30:42
do their bidding. It's like you needed another
00:30:45
force that was Co opted and one that is kind of dumb, you know,
00:30:48
one that was just willing to do whatever you you spoon and feed
00:30:51
them. So I think it also allowed
00:30:55
Carolyn and Fields investigation to pay off because I really
00:30:59
liked what they were doing. And it could have felt like this
00:31:02
Side Story, like sometimes earlier in the series, there was
00:31:06
a police procedural and I don't remember it coming back so well
00:31:09
to like give Scott enough Intel to do what he needed to.
00:31:13
But I think Carolyn and Fields chasing the white supremacist
00:31:15
guys at the same time where Scott needs that final guy to
00:31:19
interrogate to hear about the final attack or to to put the
00:31:22
pieces together about who's bad inside the government.
00:31:25
I think having Scott's mission to go after and hunt down and
00:31:29
Bob Magita, who's bad, combining with Caroline and Fields to kind
00:31:33
of root out these white supremacists, I thought that
00:31:35
came together great. Yeah, no, I 100%.
00:31:38
Agree you you can't have one without the other.
00:31:40
Right, right. Then it gets very thin.
00:31:43
So what does that mean for plot and buy in for you then?
00:31:45
Yeah. I was going to ask how bought in
00:31:47
were you that you think that CIA ground ground bench guys that
00:31:53
you know were were laid off would be willing to just turn on
00:31:56
our country and start shooting innocent civilians?
00:31:58
Yeah. The the, the white supremacist,
00:32:02
I, I, I could understand that because I could see that, you
00:32:06
know, like they they'll, you know, sort of paint him like,
00:32:09
oh, these are Jews. These are, you know, black
00:32:10
whatever the the ground branch thing that that was the thing
00:32:14
that. I was hung up on what missions
00:32:16
did they actually do? They did the Norway op right to
00:32:19
hit the Norwegian delegation. They did the Norwegian
00:32:23
delegation and they did Stevens's house.
00:32:29
Oh, Rogers, Rogers. They were picking off.
00:32:32
See that? That's why it fits, I think.
00:32:34
Yeah, I guess you're right. They're they're not.
00:32:36
They weren't the ones that were. Shooting up the protesters, yes,
00:32:40
yeah, if they were doing that. Ones like setting up the sarin
00:32:43
gas. Exactly.
00:32:44
I, I think that's why you need the white supremacist to do kind
00:32:49
of that dirty work of just complete psychos, But you need
00:32:52
the ground branch guys who I think they literally think
00:32:55
they're draining the swamp. I think they're being told by
00:32:59
Hale who, who probably has a good reputation.
00:33:03
If Hale can build this, this company and steal this arsenal
00:33:06
from Mexico, he could probably tell them like, look, guys, I
00:33:10
have connections high up at almost as high as the VP, right?
00:33:13
People surrounding the VP to basically get America back on
00:33:18
track. Like we can go take out all the
00:33:20
old guard who's ruining, you know, this country who's taking
00:33:23
us down the wrong path. And that's what's scary is you
00:33:25
get disgruntled veterans or disgruntled paramilitary guys
00:33:30
who have that training and you give them a reason to do
00:33:33
something and you, you basically tell them this will save America
00:33:38
I and they're disgruntled from losing their job.
00:33:41
I think that's enough to to really get them to do some dirty
00:33:44
shit. And the Brendan Rodgers attack
00:33:47
makes sense. They think they're wiping out
00:33:49
the old guard who's compromising the current administration, a
00:33:52
very populist administration. And these old heads, you know,
00:33:56
these old diplomats and these old security security apparatus
00:33:59
guys are ruining us from making America first and, and stuck in
00:34:03
the old ways. And I literally think a guy like
00:34:05
hell could convince them you're draining the swamp by doing
00:34:07
this. Yeah, no, I guess you're
00:34:10
bringing me around on that. I agree with you.
00:34:12
And plus as I was reading it, I was bought in.
00:34:15
I'm going 55 out of. What I guess the final thing
00:34:17
that I want to ask if you're bought in on is this whole idea
00:34:20
of we put the vice president out there to, he's going to be the
00:34:26
one to succeed like we, we needed him to, to be that guy,
00:34:31
you know, to, to, to fulfill the coup, right?
00:34:35
The podcaster sold me on it. How did not bid well.
00:34:39
Blackwell was working with Coughlin of what is it, bunker
00:34:43
radio? Yeah.
00:34:45
And his manifestos. I think it made sense.
00:34:48
I mean, it's it's literally what happens when MAGA turns on
00:34:52
Trump. You know, like you, you created
00:34:54
a beast that you you can't keep in the can anymore.
00:34:57
And I kind of see that as happening.
00:34:59
And and they pick their person, want to propel them to power.
00:35:02
And you have people on the inside.
00:35:04
Like, they got him in front of the cameras right after an
00:35:06
attack. So he was the first Face the
00:35:08
Nation saw the VP responding to the attack as opposed to the
00:35:12
president. And, and I think you had
00:35:14
political insiders, you had people to do the wet work.
00:35:17
This was almost a really, really perfect operation to have a
00:35:22
regime change. Yeah.
00:35:25
All right, so all that I'm going to put 9.5 on plot.
00:35:30
Same 5 out of five on buy in. Or is this enough to Ding it for
00:35:34
you? Think when you're ripping
00:35:37
through this book at work and you just can't put it down.
00:35:39
Yeah #5 I'm A5. That's a 5I read.
00:35:44
Like I said in the interview with Brad, the hardback in 16
00:35:48
hours started at one night on vacation, got home, read it the
00:35:53
next morning, finished that afternoon.
00:35:55
Then I read the audio book today. 3 1/2 speed because they.
00:36:02
Already ended. I already knew the story and
00:36:04
it's Arman Schultz. I know Arman Schultz's voice so
00:36:06
well. 3 1/2 speed. I could still keep up with
00:36:08
everything, and I think I finished that one.
00:36:10
I started probably feeding 10 or like 8:00 AM and finished 8:00
00:36:15
PM, So I finished that in 12 hours.
00:36:18
Wow. Yeah, I couldn't stop.
00:36:22
I couldn't stop. I would love to re listen to
00:36:25
this book again it's that good. You know I recommend it to
00:36:31
Caroline. I was like you should read this,
00:36:33
this is good. It's also a pretty good stand
00:36:35
alone, like it's made that much better if you know Bob McGee, if
00:36:38
you know Brendan Rodgers, you know Nicholas.
00:36:40
But. But you could easily have
00:36:42
started the story where, all right, this is a guy he just got
00:36:45
out of the, you know, this long term commitment.
00:36:49
Now he's here like I, I. This is a one of those perfect
00:36:52
stand alone. Yeah, it is.
00:36:53
You'd probably be confused when Nicholas is riding the dog.
00:36:55
Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:36:57
All right. What about good guys, man?
00:37:01
Got a lot of them. It's got to be a 5 dude I think.
00:37:06
McGee and Haney alone. Makes it a 5.
00:37:10
Make it a 5. I agree, Carolyn.
00:37:12
Fields too. Throw in, throw in Carolina
00:37:15
Fields, throw in Solvi's badassery, even Bennet, her, her
00:37:20
friend throwing in, you know his, his contact at the CIA, you
00:37:27
know the Admiral, the Admiral, the drunk Admiral.
00:37:31
That dude. And then he has all the women on
00:37:33
the boat for the 4th. Yes, yes.
00:37:35
Yes, yes, yes. I could just see him as that old
00:37:38
man who's always at the bar, always the life of the party and
00:37:42
just having a good time. You know, it's this, it might be
00:37:47
running fives the rest of the way 'cause I love the setting.
00:37:53
I thought that taking us to DC, you know, we he perfectly
00:37:59
describes like this whole what is a Woodley Park?
00:38:02
That's perfect area where you know, the Russian handler
00:38:07
meeting in the apartment Naval Observatory Dulles toll road.
00:38:12
We're going to like maybe this is a completely like biased 5
00:38:17
for me growing up in that area and everyone else reading this
00:38:21
book could think less of it. But yeah, take, take it from me
00:38:24
as ADC native, Northern Virginia native, it's perfect.
00:38:28
He nails it. It's perfect.
00:38:29
Freaking nails it. Dude, I talked about that a lot
00:38:33
with Brad in the interview. We we just geeked out over all
00:38:35
these DC locations. Not to mention the restaurants.
00:38:38
They, they go to Hank's Oyster Bar on the Wharf.
00:38:41
Peace going Oska. My my wife worked around the
00:38:43
corner from there. That was like their happy hour
00:38:45
spot, the Convention Center. They even stopped at Children's
00:38:47
Hospital right around the corner from where we went to college.
00:38:50
Catholic University. Oh, a dive shop in Akaquan.
00:38:54
Akaquan's a perfect little town to have this.
00:38:56
Patriot Dives, which he called it, like Patriot Dive Shop where
00:38:59
Scott gets his scuba gear tuned up.
00:39:01
There's a real one. It's called like USA Dives or
00:39:04
something. Oh, that's cool.
00:39:05
Like all this stuff is real. Off the record, the the bar at
00:39:09
the Hay Adams Hotel right across from Blair House, the FBI
00:39:13
headquarters, of course, comes up.
00:39:15
Everything is just so perfect. I'm a sucker for the DC stuff.
00:39:19
So you can't get it more perfect than what Brad did.
00:39:24
River's Edge. I even posted, if you haven't
00:39:26
seen on our socials, I posted a picture of the River's Edge
00:39:30
Farm, which was, well, actually the River River Farm is the
00:39:34
Horticultural Society, American Horticultural Society's
00:39:37
headquarters right on the Potomac River with this mansion
00:39:40
and these gardens. And that's where Nicholas gears
00:39:42
up to ride the dogs and they cross the estate into nearby
00:39:46
River's Edge, which was a house Brad said he's actually saw in
00:39:50
Zillow. He said that and Rodgers McLean
00:39:53
house were real Zillow postings while he was writing in those
00:39:56
areas. And he used them to to craft
00:39:59
these houses. They were so accurate, just so
00:40:01
accurate. And the highway I was, I was
00:40:04
going out to golf. I was on the dullest toll road.
00:40:06
And literally Scott described it perfectly.
00:40:09
The motorcade was stuck because the metro tracks to your left.
00:40:13
You know the the barbed wire, the metro track rails, you can't
00:40:16
cross that way. The shooting is coming from the
00:40:18
woods. There's woods, you know, all
00:40:20
near. Wolf.
00:40:22
Trap Wolf trap, right? There's like woods right there,
00:40:24
Wolf Trap on the other side of the highway.
00:40:27
And I'm just imagining the sniper hanging out there and
00:40:29
then Solvi has to get cover fire with the burning vehicles from
00:40:32
the RPGs cut across the highway. And then the helicopters even
00:40:37
touched down, right? That's how they they bring Scott
00:40:40
out there from the White House. Helicopters take off from the
00:40:42
White House, land on the highway, The burning RPGs.
00:40:46
Oh, it's unbelievable. Picturing all this happening
00:40:48
right where you grew up and where I'm pretty much driving
00:40:52
every week. So it's insane.
00:40:55
Brings me back. Brings me back for sure.
00:40:57
Settings of five out of five plus.
00:41:01
All right, the cover. What can you say?
00:41:06
It's America. It's America, baby.
00:41:11
I think it's perfect. Do you see this fold on top of
00:41:14
the O? You see that the fold in the
00:41:16
flag. I think it's perfect.
00:41:20
It's obviously it's, it's one of the best covers I think I've
00:41:23
ever seen, especially if we want to judge the book by the cover,
00:41:26
Judge the cover by the book. It perfectly embodies everything
00:41:32
is going forward, the setting, the scene, this RIP in America,
00:41:36
you know, like is the flag falling?
00:41:38
Is it just waving? You know, like what is going on?
00:41:42
Yeah, I don't know. It's just I love the colouring,
00:41:44
the shading. If you have the physical cover
00:41:49
too, like the, you know, the ridges of of Brad and Edge of
00:41:53
Honour, it's just perfect. It's perfect.
00:41:55
Take this book out into the sun and the daylight and it shines.
00:41:59
Just absolutely shines. It's it's a 5 out of five and we
00:42:02
rarely give 5. You know, this is, this is up
00:42:05
there, up there. I want to see the paperback.
00:42:08
I want to see the mask on paperback.
00:42:09
If they still do it, I want to see the international version.
00:42:12
Honestly, this should be the international version.
00:42:14
Don't change a damn thing. Don't.
00:42:17
Don't put a silhouette of an operator fully kitted out.
00:42:20
Don't. The Germans?
00:42:22
Yeah, the Germans are going to. Do that.
00:42:24
We're grading this before we see other covers that would
00:42:26
potentially bring that score down, so.
00:42:28
The British one's going to have a train, the Australian one's
00:42:32
going to have a cricket match. We should tell Chad GBT to take
00:42:38
the Edge of Honor cover and figure out how to add power
00:42:41
lines or or a train. Dude, I seriously want to put a
00:42:46
description of Scott raising the flag at Bishop's Gate with the
00:42:50
dock behind him into Jet GBT and say make this a mass market
00:42:54
paperback cover and just, I don't know, it's cool.
00:42:55
I want to see that it's just a thing of beauty.
00:43:00
What's the other picture? Solvi snaps.
00:43:02
Oh, of him eating the fish. Him eating the fish, yeah.
00:43:05
You put that on the back cover, you put Brad eating the fish.
00:43:09
Hey chachi BT make a picture or eating lutevisk.
00:43:13
That's awesome. What's your free space man?
00:43:21
The hit on the Rogers house, I already said the other one is my
00:43:24
favorite action scene, so I feel like I covered that.
00:43:27
But equally and just right up there is the way Haney, McGee
00:43:33
are all bunkering down, getting ready and then they take every
00:43:36
advantage that they have. Even at one point Scott radios
00:43:39
in for them to use the the automatic window blinds and the
00:43:43
shades. So the team going up the ladder
00:43:45
gets thrown off by him a little time so he can scoot around and
00:43:48
get a better shot on them using the little drones from Nicholas,
00:43:51
the Mosquito drones. They even are able to take out
00:43:54
the attackers drones themselves. I just think the hit on that
00:43:58
house. So the opening action scene
00:44:01
hooked me. That scene made me think, let's
00:44:05
freaking go. This is one of the best books
00:44:07
I've ever read. And by the time the Solvi thing
00:44:10
happened on the highway, icing on the cake.
00:44:13
So just the pacing between those three scenes and all the
00:44:17
storyline in between them to meet all the characters and see
00:44:21
who's who. The pacing was phenomenal.
00:44:23
So I'm giving it to both the pacing and those action scenes.
00:44:29
It's a good one. It's a good mine's, mine's kind
00:44:31
of related and it's, it's tied into good guys.
00:44:35
But I, I think just, I guess I'm going to give it to Brad like I
00:44:40
don't know if we've ever done that before because.
00:44:43
Just only about every other book.
00:44:46
But like, just to be able to come up with this all right, you
00:44:50
know, where do you go from now? Like and to truly think hard
00:44:54
about Scott's out of the game, execute all right, how do you
00:44:58
pull him back in? Because you have to have him
00:45:00
come back in, you know, put him in in in the situation where he
00:45:04
can't have his regular team, but you're going to bring back some
00:45:07
of the best cast of characters, you know, name drops whatever
00:45:11
and to execute this perfectly. And I agree with you.
00:45:15
It's like it's not the it's not my favorite book.
00:45:18
It's definitely not the best book, but it's it's just like,
00:45:24
you know, it's a game. It's a for me, it's a game
00:45:26
changing. I agree.
00:45:27
It's like, I agree. I don't know.
00:45:30
So I'm I'm giving it to Brad. Fuck it.
00:45:33
Yeah. Game Changer is a perfect way to
00:45:35
say it, especially with the the recent run of books.
00:45:38
They were all good, some very good, but we needed a phenomenal
00:45:43
1 and we got it. And I think this lives up there
00:45:47
with, you know, you said a backlash.
00:45:51
Lions takedown apostle like this is up there with like top five
00:45:56
for me. It's it's up there, up there
00:45:59
now. Do I press and say if it's top
00:46:01
five, where does it land? What spot does it land?
00:46:05
If I had to press the on it, is that too much to ask?
00:46:11
So I think I think I'm. Prisoner of the moment, it's
00:46:17
344. I was about to say it might be
00:46:20
prisoner of the moment but it's in my 3 spot I think it.
00:46:24
Might be a three. For for you it would be Does it
00:46:28
take takedown because you love takedown?
00:46:31
Yeah. I think it beats the Apostle
00:46:33
though. It's close, but I think it edges
00:46:35
it. It edges it out.
00:46:37
It's a different style, though. It's not as deep.
00:46:39
It is deep, but it's deep in different ways, you know, Like
00:46:42
there we're like interacted with the Afghan people here.
00:46:45
Here we're like, America's in a crisis, you know?
00:46:48
Sure, it's very different, but. Yeah, I think it's three.
00:46:52
I think it's a three spot. I think it's a three spot.
00:46:55
You know, I'm with you. We, we reserve all rights to
00:46:57
change our ratings at any given time.
00:46:59
So don't hold us to that. That's where I'm putting it
00:47:03
though, and I think I'm pretty confidently putting it there and
00:47:06
not just being a prisoner at the moment, so.
00:47:09
Wow, so this one is a for both of us of 48.5. 48.5 out of 50
00:47:18
For folks who haven't heard a lot of Thriller Pod, we've
00:47:21
reviewed over 100 books. We've given the scorecard for
00:47:24
all of them. That's one of the highest ever,
00:47:27
yeah, of all time. Definitely.
00:47:31
Wow, that's a good book. It's a great book.
00:47:33
Get go out. If you're listening this far and
00:47:35
you haven't gone out and bought a copy, I don't know why you've
00:47:38
listened this far, but you everyone needs to read this
00:47:43
book. Absolutely, and like we said, it
00:47:45
could be a stand alone. I'd recommend it to anybody.
00:47:49
I might even say it's an OK place to start the series.
00:47:53
I think I stand by you really should start with lines of
00:47:57
Lucerne of course, followed up by State of the Union.
00:48:01
You could start with backlash and if you want a little pre
00:48:04
story spymaster and backlash, I think I would put this one next
00:48:08
as a good place to begin if you just want to get a sense of who
00:48:10
Scott Arvath is, because then you can go back and say how did
00:48:13
he get to this point? How did he get, you know, right
00:48:16
where he's almost he? Intrigues you enough to be like,
00:48:19
Oh yeah, I oh shit, his wife died like oh, I Oh yeah.
00:48:23
What was it like when he was fully in the Carlton group, when
00:48:26
he was fully in the civil? Service.
00:48:27
The one guy geeks out. He's like, you saved the
00:48:30
president and the president's daughter, you know, like, oh
00:48:32
shit, this guy's done stuff before so.
00:48:35
He was putting on a show, though, because he was part of
00:48:37
the cabal. But yeah.
00:48:40
But yeah, that kind of gravitas that the the legend and the aura
00:48:44
of Scott Harvath holds, I think would get somebody interested in
00:48:47
saying I want, I want more. I want to know more about him.
00:48:50
And and if you like Solvi a lot, this could kick you off to not
00:48:53
even go back to the very beginning, but go back and read
00:48:56
her arc, you know, Near Dark Black ice and go back to some of
00:49:00
those more recent books or who is Bob McGee?
00:49:03
Let's go back and find the Bob McGee Lydia Ryan books.
00:49:05
It's like it sparked so much interest.
00:49:07
Yeah. Now, thinking of thinking ahead,
00:49:14
this book did do something that's got me questioning what's
00:49:17
Nicholas's role in all this? Because I feel like the demands
00:49:21
of fatherhood and the demands of running the Carlton Group.
00:49:27
Too much. Is a lot, and of course,
00:49:31
obviously the baby is, you know, just an infant.
00:49:36
But what will it mean for Nicholas to split his time
00:49:40
between family and leading the Carlton group?
00:49:42
I don't know how that's going to work out.
00:49:45
Really curious about that. I could see this being Nicholas
00:49:47
the swansong. Yeah, but.
00:49:51
You can't. You can't kill him.
00:49:54
No, he'll just, he'll just be there for Scott and Sulvy to
00:49:57
kind of lean on occasionally or basically go see the baby every
00:50:02
once in a while. But I just don't see him getting
00:50:05
out, get him getting out of the Carlton Group and just being a
00:50:07
father and then, you know, maybe a couple books down the road.
00:50:10
We have to tap into his expertise digitally, you know,
00:50:13
but. Yeah, I think could you have
00:50:16
Gary Lawler and Bob McGee kind of Co run the show because Gary?
00:50:20
They were kind of, they were kind of planting that seed,
00:50:22
right? Like exactly.
00:50:24
McGee would be a good guy to lead the.
00:50:25
I wonder if you would come in retirement.
00:50:27
Yeah. Yep, and they even had actually,
00:50:29
one of the passages I want to read is McGee reflecting on this
00:50:32
and he talks about painting, right?
00:50:33
He finds his solace. He's painting.
00:50:36
They go to his house on Kent Island.
00:50:38
He loves the boat, right? He takes the boat hours, hours
00:50:41
up the Chesapeake to to get to the July 4th party.
00:50:46
I can kind of see him getting to a point where he's found that
00:50:48
piece and he has enjoyed it and he's ready to get back in the
00:50:53
game already, you know, to saddle up again.
00:50:55
So I think that's a possibility. But time, time really is a
00:50:59
theme. With Scott getting older, what's
00:51:01
next for him? Nicholas having a family now,
00:51:04
ready to move on. McGee and Gary Lawler are out
00:51:07
there. Fields is so young one, an
00:51:11
incredible shooter, incredible cop.
00:51:14
There's a future for her, whatever role she plays.
00:51:17
But man, I could see her being groomed to be a Carlton group
00:51:21
higher up one day. I I just think there's a there's
00:51:25
a lot in this book that deals with the past.
00:51:29
There's a lot of this book which looks forward into the future,
00:51:34
but we just don't know where it's heading.
00:51:35
And Bob McGee sums up perfectly with a quote just about the
00:51:39
importance of time. Scott says to him.
00:51:43
I don't know, I'm pretty sure I could have squeezed a couple of
00:51:45
more years out of it had I wanted to.
00:51:48
Life is all about the timing, McGee remarked, his voice tinged
00:51:51
with quiet wisdom. Especially in this line of work,
00:51:55
Knowing when to step away. That's what separates the wise
00:51:57
from the reckless, the quick and the dead, Harvath mused.
00:52:01
And yet here we are, no paycheck, no backup to speak of.
00:52:05
Just us in the ambo. So what does that make us?
00:52:08
Men willing to fight for what's right, even when the system
00:52:11
won't? That makes us men of honor, last
00:52:13
of the American breed. That was a good quote.
00:52:16
It's a great passage. That's a great one.
00:52:21
Wisdom bomb from Bob McGee right there.
00:52:23
Yeah, it leaves. It leaves a lot, like I said it
00:52:25
it sets this book that not only resets but also sets us up for
00:52:33
to be intrigued for what's to come.
00:52:34
Yeah. How amazing is it to have a book
00:52:37
that in terms of action and plotting is just a perfect easy
00:52:40
beach read? Then you have passages like that
00:52:42
with a real old timer character speaking to your protagonist.
00:52:46
Yeah, no, it's executed purple. It's everything you want, it's
00:52:48
everything you want in the arc of the series, and it's
00:52:50
everything you want to just a kick ass book of the summer.
00:52:52
Kick ass book. Dude, Well, I guess we'll we'll
00:52:57
wrap it up with a little Limerick and then we'll get on
00:52:59
out of here so. Sounds good, give it to me.
00:53:02
Operating at the edge of honor as Scott and Salvi hunt the
00:53:06
bomber, president's downfall and a shadowy cub, all the
00:53:11
conspirators now are all goners. Nice.
00:53:16
There you go. I was wondering how you been
00:53:18
around with honor. You got bomber goner.
00:53:22
There you go, baby. All right, So what?
00:53:24
What are we doing next? Good question.
00:53:26
We got to sit down. We got to take a look at the
00:53:28
schedule. We've been busy.
00:53:32
We've had a lot of different things on our mind.
00:53:34
One, we want to come back to essay Cosby's King of Ashes new
00:53:37
release couple months ago. We've talked about getting into
00:53:41
a couple different things like nuclear war, Annie Jacobson, a
00:53:44
little nonfiction kind of feel. But then we've also just wanted
00:53:48
to explore a little Steve Berry. We we loved our first Steve
00:53:51
Berry. I want to come back to that.
00:53:53
So there's a lot we can do. I think we need to sit down,
00:53:56
decide, but before you know it, we're going to get arcs of
00:53:59
denied access. Mitch Rapp's going to hit us
00:54:02
quick. End of next month, the Dark Wolf
00:54:06
TV show comes out. So we're going to go back to
00:54:08
some terminalist coverage. I just think we have a pack next
00:54:13
couple of months, so we might do some little fun side adventures
00:54:16
and then we're definitely going to come back to Mitch Rapp in
00:54:19
September and before that in August.
00:54:22
Dark Wolf TV show is going to keep us busy.
00:54:23
So that's what's coming down the Pike.
00:54:26
Definitely. I already pre-ordered our Sons
00:54:30
of Valor book through audible to use one of those credits.
00:54:33
So we have Sons of Valor 4 released on July 22nd.
00:54:36
Yes, we have Supreme Justice Eric Bishop's book.
00:54:41
Right, let's bring him back on. Oh, and we said we want to do
00:54:44
Dan Brown getting ready for the next Dan Brown book.
00:54:47
So. Secret of secrets, yeah.
00:54:49
There's a lot going on. Lot, lot going on.
00:54:54
All right, Well, if you want to stay up up to the latest on the
00:54:59
content, be a part of our great chat we have on group chat
00:55:05
GroupMe. Go ahead, go to our website,
00:55:08
thrillerpod.com. Log in through Patreon, join our
00:55:13
group. We we have a great group of
00:55:15
people. You know, I'm about to thank a
00:55:17
large group of them in a second, but I can't can't say that
00:55:20
enough. Go check us out on YouTube.
00:55:23
Check us out thrillerpod.com. Like I said, we have, we have
00:55:26
three seasons. This one, our main feed going
00:55:29
forward, you know, fuck, we're up to episode 98.
00:55:32
We we're just rolling, my dude. Yeah, let's keep it going.
00:55:36
Mike's pumping out these little vignettes, you know, using the
00:55:40
the the video feeds on the socials, Instagram, Twitter.
00:55:44
So at Thriller podcast on both those, check it all out.
00:55:51
All right, well, like I said, I'm going to thank our patrons,
00:55:53
our deputy director, Sherry F and Brad E, our special agents,
00:55:58
Ben, Darrell, Kevin, George, Matt, Don, Peggy, Chris and
00:56:02
Mark. And as always, just let McGee be
00:56:08
McGee. Absolutely.
00:56:13
I think I did this all the last time so.
00:56:14
Love the McGee shout.