Fast forward to our last encounter in The First Commandment (Thor's 6th) when Tracy Hastings, Scot's girlfriend, is recovering in a coma from an assassin's bullet and Scot is now working in the top-secret anti-terrorist Apex Project and fuming that President Rutledge has released hostages from Guantanamo Bay, one of whom is targeting Scot's friends and family.

As The Last Patriot begins, Scot is now 37 and trying to start a new phase of his life with Tracy in Paris. They are sitting at a cafe and rescue Professor Anthony Nichols from a car bombing. Meanwhile in Washington DC, CIA agents are searching for a rogue intelligence officer trying to keep Mohammed's final revelation a secret. If the missing texts from the Koran are discovered, Islam could be reformed dramatically which is something Abdul Waleed, Shiek Omar, and Matthew Dodd (this book's villains) vehemently oppose.

Soon Scot is caught back up in the life he was trying to escape. Along the way, he mends his relationships with President Rutledge and Gary Lawlor who heads the Apex Project and is like a second father to Scot.

Weaved into the story are historical tidbits such as information about Thomas Jefferson who declared war on the Muslim pirates from the "Barbary Coast" nations of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers. In 1815, the US Marines wore leather collars on their uniforms to prevent injury from the Muslim scimitars and were forever after known as "leather necks." It is also this skirmish which is referred to in the Marine Hymn "to the shores of Tripoli" and about which we learn of a secret mission to secure Mohammed's final revelation. We also learn that Cervantes was held prisoner by the Barbary pirates which served as the inspiration for Don Quixote and of an original copy belonging to Jefferson which contained coded material (think Da Vinci Code) necessary to unravel the mystery.

Although The Last Patriot is not vintage Thor, it is still worthwhile escapist reading. It helps to have read prior Scot Harvath episodes and to know the returning characters including President Rutledge, Gary Lawlor, and Tracy Hastings but enough is revealed so that you can read this as a stand alone novel. I would have preferred less history and more action, less religion and more action, and less da Vinci Code and more action in true Brad Thor fashion reminiscent of the chase down the slopes in his debut.

--Jerry Solot