Meanwhile, our old friend, The Troll, lies bleeding near death in Spain after being attacked by a women he hired for sex. Furious and filled with revenge for not only being attacked in his secret lair but for being framed for the bombing in Rome, The Troll contacts Scot Harvath. Harvath has recently returned from Iraq where he helped bring down Al-Quaeda insurgents holding children of local police officers hostage.

Scot is now working independently for the Carlton Group as the administration has changed and his agency has been eliminated. Scott meets with The Troll in Bilbao only to learn that there will be more attacks of American citizens in Europe. The Troll, as Brad Thor readers will know, buys and sells top secret intelligence information and has a love/hate relationship with Scot. He is also the very proud owner of two Caucasian Ovcharkas (very big white dogs) named Argos and Draco who saved his life. The Troll convinces Scot that the best way to find out where these future attacks will take place is to find the person who arranged his attempted assassination. 

Alison's father hires Sgt. John Vaughn to help with the investigation when the Chicago Police cannot find a single lead. Vaughn, who served as a Marine in Iraq for four years, has recently become a lawyer. Vaughn connects with Officer Davidson in the Public Vehicles Department to help him find the specific cab and its driver. As Vaughn and Davidson methodically track down the cabbie in Chicago, Scot travels to Spain, Geneva, London, and Amsterdam and other places to track down The Mufti of Jihad. 

Foreign Influence brings back the Brad Thor we have come to appreciate and expect after a lackluster effort with The Apostle. It is quite apparent that former Navy Seal Scot Horvath is not the same action hero who protected the president and his daughter in The Lions of Lucerne (the very first Horvath novel).

Although Scot is now 40 years old, he still maintains his no nonsense approach to terrorists and child molesters but we also see the man who wants to raise a family. Thor has included old characters like The Troll but also includes a brand new group of female special forces agents who play a prominent role in Foreign Influence. This combination of new and old characters works quite well in the parallel stories which conclude in Chicago.

Reader, beware. There is graphic violence, brutality, torture and some political rhetoric in Foreign Influence. This fast-reading page turner bring Thor back to the very top of the list of political thriller writers. I am very much looking forward to the sequel.

--Jerru Solot