An assassin is targeting people close to counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath. His girlfriend is comatose in a hospital bed and the president has ordered him to stand down. But how can he stand down when the people around him are being gunned down?
First off, this was a birthday present and not something I picked for myself. I'm not into political thrillers.
The Good: The First Commandment is action-packed and feels like a blockbuster movie. Scot Harvath is a high caliber bad-ass. The plot had a lot of twists and turns. That's about it for The Good, I'm sorry to say.
The Bad: None of the characters were very detailed. The story had a lot of implausible elements, just like most blockbuster movies. The chapters were too short. I know Thor was trying to build the suspense but a 451 page book shouldn't have over 100 chapters. It felt like Thor wrote the book as a movie script first and then turned it into a novel.
The Ugly: If it weren't for the uglies, I might have given this a 3 but here goes. None of the female characters were more than set dressing. About half of the book felt like Brad Thor pushing his political views on me. I lost track of how many times Harvath made unfair comments about Muslims. The phrases "killing Americans, War on Terror, and American way of life" were way overused.
2.5 out of five. It would have been lightyears better without all the political speak from Harvath.