Brad Thor's Act of War, is a thriller novel that takes you to the lives of Navy SEALS, spies, CIA agents, and terrorists. The story begins in Washington DC where a meeting is being held regarding the update of a Chinese terrorist threat called the Snow Dragon. Simultaneously, on the North Korean coast, agents James Fordyce, Lester Johnson, Eric Tucker, and Billy Tang are placed on a covert mission to gather intetel connecting the Chinese threat to the DPRK. We then move to Pakistan following agents Scott Harvath, Chase Palmer, and Sloane Ashby. They quickly take custody of Ahmad Yaqub to find information about a recruiter who placed six muslim students on a visa in the United States to execute the plan made by the Chinese. Lastly, we meet Colonel Jiang Shi, a veteran of the Chinese Military, and the heart of the Snow Dragon.
Brad Thor opens the novel with a mysterious murder in the prologue, and grabs the interest of the reader. The way the novel switches between different characters keeps the reader involved with all corners of the plot. Although this is the thirteenth Scott Harvath novel, it is written and set up in a way in which I did not know there were previous books. The ending is kind of abrupt and short which closes the novel very quickly. I feel that because of this, many questions were left unanswered, mainly about the characters. A running theme of this novel is freedom. In the end, Colonel Jiang Shi received a small note, "America bows to no one" (353). I recommend this book to people who enjoy reading about international conflict and spy work. I give this book a four out of five stars because the plot and character development is very good, but Thor could have ended the book with the same detail that was used throughout his book.