State of the Union by Brad Thor (2004, Hardcover)

STATE OF THE UNION
Brad Thor
Pocket Books $7.99 523 pages
ISBN 0-7434-3678-4

Fortunately for America, series hero Scot Harvath (The Lions of Lucerne; Path of the Assassin) possesses almost superhuman abilities and an equal amount of fantastic luck in this blistering, testosterone-fueled espionage thriller.
Be warned. When you open this book up, you won't be able to put it down. Our hero, Scot Horvath, is ready to rock and roll on the enemies of America. Unfortunately for him those enemies aren't as easy to identify as they used to be. Someone seems to want the Cold War back, but what's more is that they want Russia to be the dominant nuclear power.

Imagine that Russian operatives hid nuclear devices in America. Now consider that one Russian soldier holds those devices as a threat to order the President of America to remove itself as a world power or millions of Americans will die. Enter Scot Horvath, ex-Seal, now Secret Service operative. He has one week to find and disarm the weapons. Throw in a lovely Russian Intelligence agent and some angst from his new girlfriend and you have a plot for some fun suspenseful action. And let's not forget the CIA detachment along for the ride.

Thor, the host of PBS' "Traveling Lite", makes the most of the exotic travels of his characters. They even land in Finland! He weaves a tightly written story with characters that you want to learn more about. I was able to thoroughly enjoy this book even though I had not read the previous two in the series.