Brad Thor. Spy Master. Pocket Books, 2019.

Spy Master is another installment in the saga of Scot Harvath, one of the two spy masters in this story. The author expresses disdain for what the CIA has become: an established bureaucracy with a middle management doing nothing out of fear of rocking the status quo. (This reviewer recalls an old saying: “What kind of person do you never find in the CIA? A Republican.)

Harvath, then, works for a private firm that does intelligence outsourcing. In some ways Spy Master is an updated version of Red Storm Rising, Tom Clancy’s second novel. That story was about a Soviet plan to take out NATO, and much of the action takes place in Iceland.

Spy Master is set in contemporary Europe, but Russia is still trying to take out NATO. First, as always, sabotage and cyberwarfare get NATO nations arguing with one another. These are followed by plans to gain control of the Baltic Sea as in the old Soviet days.

Instead of Iceland, much of the action takes place on another Nordic island, the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic. Russia figures that if they can control this relatively sparsely populated landmass, they can control access to the Baltic Sea and the Baltic lands Russia still covets: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.

Harvath develops a clever plan which not only thwarts a Russian planned tactical occupation of Gotland, but in doing so, he learns the identity of the Russian (the other spy master) behind the disruption of NATO and the planned invasion of the Baltic region.

Throughout the novel, Thor emphasizes the importance of teamwork. To do a good job, one has to have skilled and reliable people working together. Harvath is no lone wolf James Bond character. Success also requires a certain amount of luck. I have to confess there was one situation towards the end where the luck seemed unrealistic, but otherwise this is an entertaining tale.

Just as back in 1987 something like Red Storm Rising might have happened, so with our current international alignments something like Spy Master is within the realm of possibility.