Framed for murder by the conspirators, Harvath goes on the run, taking the fight to the towering mountains of Switzerland. There, he finds an unlikely ally: the beautiful Claudia Mueller of the Swiss Federal Attorney's Office. Together they must brave the subzero temperatures and sheer heights of treacherous Mount Pilatus -- and their only chance for survival is to enter the den of the most lethal team of professional killers the world has ever known....

Lions of Lucerne

FROM OUR EDITORS

When terrorists massacre dozens of Secret Service agents and kidnap the president during a ski trip, former Navy SEAL Scot Harvath -- the only agent to survive the attack -- sets out on a one-man rescue mission in this unrelenting thriller from first-time novelist Brad Thor. Find out how Thor's penchant for verbal expression got him into trouble, out of trouble, and on the road to authordom in our exclusive author essay.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

On the snow-covered slopes of Utah, the unthinkable has happened: the President of the United States has been kidnapped, and his Secret Service detail massacred. Only one agent has survived — ex-Navy SEAL Scot Harvath. He doesn't buy the official line that Middle Eastern terrorists are responsible, and begins his own campaign to find the truth — and exact revenge. But his search makes him a marked man by the sinister cabal behind the attack.

Framed for murder by the conspirators, Harvath goes on the run, taking the fight to the towering mountains of Switzerland. There, he finds an unlikely ally: the beautiful Claudia Mueller of the Swiss Federal Attorney's Office. Together they must brave the subzero temperatures and sheer heights of treacherous Mount Pilatus — and their only chance for survival is to enter the den of the most lethal team of professional killers the world has ever known....

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

He's fearless. He's tireless. If you get him angry, as does the chief of staff of the vice-president of the United States, he'll pop you with an uppercut. He's Secret Service Agent Scot Harvath, the hero of Thor's rough-and-ready debut. As the action opens on the ski slopes outside Park City, Utah, the 20-something Harvath has screwed up. Under his watch, terrorists not only kill 30 agents but kidnap the president midway down his final run of the day. When the Secret Service, the FBI, the CIA and a suspiciously inept and indecisive vice-president wring their hands, the disgraced Harvath picks up the few scant clues left behind and launches a one-man search-and-rescue mission. The terrorists publicly demand $500 million and privately insist that an anti-fossil fuel proposal in Congress be killed. When those demands aren't immediately met, one of the president's fingers arrives at the White House. By this time, Harvath is on his way to Switzerland, where he's gotten word of a mysterious cell of mercenaries named the Lions of Lucerne. With unflinching determination and an uncanny ability to escape danger and assassination, the young buck pieces together the plot and girds himself for a showdown at the terrorists' secret hideaway inside the frozen exterior of Mt. Pilatus. Thor, host of the PBS television series Traveling Lite, shows a gift for dramatic storytelling. The momentum of the plot alone may satisfy some readers. Yet it's hard to get past the novel's many graceless shortcomings clichd language (time passes "at a snail's pace," old habits "die hard"), cartoonish scenes and a protagonist whose superhero character desperately needs fleshing out. Agent, Heide Lange of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Jan.) Forecast: Pocket is launching this pumped-up debut with billboard advertising in Times Square and an eight-city author tour. Swiss mercenaries may seem tame villains in times like these, but this is adequate escapist fare for readers seeking a quick action fix. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Secret Service agent and former Navy SEAL Scot Harvath heads the advance team protecting the President and his daughter on a ski trip in Utah. When the President is kidnapped following a terrorist-rigged avalanche, Scot is the only agent to survive. Determined to find out what happened, he returns to Washington, DC, where he learns that two senators may have helped facilitate the plot. After revealing what he knows to the head of the Secret Service, he is betrayed and set up for murder. Clues lead him next to Switzerland, where he hooks up with Claudia Mueller of the Federal Attorney's Office in Bern. Together, in an attempt to save the President, they try to avoid hired killers while tracking down the men behind the kidnapping. An assured debut for Thor, creator and host of the public television series Traveling Lite, this international thriller will delight readers with its nonstop action, relentless suspense, strong protagonist, and wintry settings in Utah, DC, and Switzerland. Well-researched, high-voltage entertainment reminiscent of Robert Ludlum and David Morrell; highly recommended for all public libraries. Ronnie H. Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Debut thriller from the host of PBS's Traveling Lite proves its own title. The sole survivor of a ski-slope nabbing of the US president, Secret Service Agent Scot Harvath is America's latest cookie-cutter superspy to be vaulted into international intrigue by terrorism. All evidence points to the Mideast's largest terrorist organization, but Harvath's not fooled-he knows that Middle East groups "are not tacticians. . . . Essentially, they're cowards. They don't do in-your-face operations." "Call it an ingrained bigotry," but Harvath just knows that a Mideast terrorist group could not pull off a scam of this magnitude. Turns out he's right-it was the Swiss. Aided by a pair of conniving senators and a squirrelly vice president, a crack Swiss commando unit has snatched President Potus and stuffed him away inside a mountain. When Harvath's investigation starts to get warm, he's framed-and won't be able to clear his name unless he can free the president. Oh, yes, there's also a Swiss agent named Claudia who's hot and knows how to handle a 9mm SIG-Sauer 229 semiautomatic. Thor's tangled writing often interferes with the plot-drenching: "The uncomfortable hog tie position in which he was restrained threatened to drive him insane"; "He lay in a trance like state in the warm void half-way between sleeping and waking until his mind began to assemble different explanations for what he was hearing and he felt himself being forcibly dragged upward toward the surface world of the wakeful." Screenplay prose. Author tour