| The First Commandment |  | Author: Brad Thor
Creator: Armand Schultz
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $14.99
Buy New: $10.19
You Save: $4.80 (32%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  61 reviews
Sales Rank: 1581352
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Abridged
Number Of Items: 5
ISBN: 0743582985
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780743582988
ASIN: 0743582985
Publication Date: June 30, 2009 (In 172 Days)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Not yet published
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Product Description
A master assassin. A vendetta years in the making. And a counterterrorism operative who will risk everything -- even treason -- to keep the people he loves alive.Six months ago: In the dead of night, five of the most dangerous detainees in the war on terror are pulled from their isolation cells in Guantanamo Bay, held at gunpoint, and told to strip off their orange jumpsuits. Issued civilian clothes and driven to the base airfield, they are loaded aboard a Boeing 727 and set free. Present day: Covert counterterrorism agent Scot Harvath awakens to discover that his world has changed violently -- and forever. A sadistic assassin with a personal vendetta is wreaking havoc of biblical proportions. Unleashing nightmarish horrors on those closest to Harvath, the attacker thrusts everything Harvath holds dear -- including his life -- into absolute peril. Ordered by the president to stay out of the investigation, Harvath is forced to mount his own operation to uncover the conspiracy and to exact revenge. When he discovers a connection between the attacks and a group of prisoners secretly released from Guantanamo, Harvath must ask himself previously unthinkable questions about the organizations and the nation he has spent his life serving. A renegade from his own government, Harvath will place his life on the line as his search for the truth draws him into a showdown with one of the most dangerous men on the face of the earth. Brad Thor roars through this nonstop adventure full of international intrigue, twisted betrayals, and ultimate revenge.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 56 more reviews...
 "The First Commandment" by Brad Thor December 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Rating: 3 Water Towers
The action picks up in "The First Commandment" where it left off in "Takedown".
Scot Harvath is in the hospital taking care of Tracy when his boss Gary Lawlor visits with some news on the attack on Tracy. Some of the blood smeared on Scot's door was lambs blood and it contained a radioactive substance. Scot wants to hunt down the person responsible but Gary says he can't and after a visit to the White House.....President Rutledge says the same thing.
Scot is not to get involved. Period.
Six months before the attack on Tracy five prisoners were released from Guantanamo. These five were known terrorists and were guaranteed freedom by the U.S.A. even though "The First Commandment" of terrorism is to never deal with a terrorist. The U.S. did, and it is backfiring big time.
One of the released prisoners is on a quest to kill relatives and friends of Scot's. After making Scot suffer all these losses.......he will kill Scot. Good luck with that....
Luckily, Scot does not listen to the President (not a good thing to do by the way) and starts hunting down those who he knows were released (and he suspects of being the killer). He was given the list of four prisoners that were released by the Troll....notice I said four. The Troll kept one person off the list for reasons you will find out when you read the book.
As the attacks against Scot's friends and family continue, Scot tracks down the prisoners and does away with them one by one. This puts President Rutledge in an awkward position since he promised safe passage for the prisoners to keep a terrorist attack of unimaginable horror from happening--ooops, way to go Scot. (But then again...you never deal with a terrorist.)
President Rutledge decides that Scot needs to be stopped...dead or alive.
Scot is branded a traitor, and is being chased by his old friend Rick Morrell and his band of Special Ops soldiers. The action intensifies as Scot races to find the killer before he commits the final act of revenge on Scot's ex-girlfriend Meg Cassidy.
Although I enjoyed "The First Commandment" it is not, in my opinion, up to par for Brad Thor. The reason for letting the prisoners go is weak and trusting a known felon (the Troll) is surprising for Scot Harvath. There are other issues that were bothersome for me, but, maybe I'm being an overly critical engineer.
This much I can say: When the action begins in earnest, Brad Thor shines, leaving the reader ready for the next book in the series "The Last Patriot".
 the best of the bunch! November 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
i've read all of brad thor's books, and the first commandment is the best of the lot, so far! i've read a few flynn thrillers, and although i find them entertaining and such, i prefer thor's books.
i like his writing, plus i find "scot harvath" a more interesting characater than "mitch rapp" but that's just my opinion,
that being said, i highly recommend this book if you like action with a political slant.
 Awful, waste of time October 7, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book was a complete waste of my time. Thor was recommended to me by my cousin who thought I would like it because I'm a big Daniel Silva fan. Thor absolutely cannot compete with Silva. Silva's writing is much more compelling and his Gabriel Allon character so much more interesting than Scot Harvath. Thor's writing is just plain terrible. There are too many cringe-inducing parts to list here, but I'll provide one example:
"One was rarely given second chances in life. He'd managed to get his second chance at happiness put on a life support system. It was an ironic metaphor, as his love life had always been in critical condition".
Are you serious? How can someone write this? My recommendation is to skip Thor all together and stick with Daniel Silva.
Are you kidding? August 25, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I read a lot of political thrillers... good ones and not so good ones... this one I could not finish. The story was predictable, the characters caricatures of ultra-right wing rednecks and really, do I need to know that the characters ate before something happens in the story? Page 101: "once he gulped down his breakfast". Page 79 "he even allowed himself an after-dinner drink.". Page 115, "the resort's chef made a late lunch and the men made small talk as they ate". This weird interest in using meals as either filler or segways between scenes goes on and on. Did the publishers put a stipulation in his contract as to the number of pages he needed to fill? The politics of this author are predictable, ridiculously one dimensional and outright pandering to a certain segment of the population. There is nothing complex about this book. It doesn't make you think, it doesn't make you feel and it doesn't even make you care for the characters. I was fervently hoping something bad would happen to the main character as I would have shot him myself if I could have.
Baldacci and Flynn are better August 22, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I bought this book based on an NY Times Book Review. It sounded interesting and in the same genre as the Vince Flynn and David Baldacci books I've read. The book starts out well and builds a credible story, but doesn't hold the interest as well all the way through.
Thor's protagonist is a likable guy that anyone would want to root for on the post 9-11 era but his character is not as well developed as some of Flynn's, Baldacci's or Nelson DeMille's characters. You may feel for the people in the story who have been struck by various tragedies of the (Harvath's girlfriend and friends particularly) but Thor does not develop them or their backgrounds well enough for the story line to be credible.
This was mediocre beach reading but I was expecting more. I may give Thor another try again, not with my $ but with my library card instead.
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