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  • Near Dark

  • The Scot Harvath Series, Book 19
  • Written by: Brad Thor
  • Narrated by: Armand Schultz
  • Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (75 ratings)

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Near Dark cover art

Near Dark

Written by: Brad Thor
Narrated by: Armand Schultz
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Publisher's Summary

Instant Number-One New York Times and Wall Street Journal Best Seller

“Fast-paced...pulse-pounding...supremely entertaining…. His best ever.” (The Washington Times)

“If you love thrillers…if you’ve ever read a thriller you enjoyed…if you think you *might* like a thriller…you HAVE to order Brad Thor’s Near Dark. This might be the single greatest thriller I’ve covered on The Real Book Spy. It’s amazing!” (The Real Book Spy)

Scot Harvath returns in the newest thriller from number-one New York Times best-selling author Brad Thor.

The world’s largest bounty has just been placed upon America’s top spy. His only hope for survival is to outwit, outrun, and outlast his enemies long enough to get to the truth.

But for Scot Harvath to accomplish his most dangerous mission ever - one that has already claimed the lives of the people closest to him, including his new wife - he’s going to need help - a lot of it.

Not knowing whom he can trust, Harvath finds an unlikely ally in Norwegian intelligence operative Sølvi Kolstad. Just as smart, just as deadly, and just as determined, she not only has the skills but also the broken, troubled past to match Harvath’s own.

©2020 Brad Thor. All rights reserved. (P)2020 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

What listeners say about Near Dark

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Ending is way too rushed

Quite a good story, good characters and lots of twists and turns until the last few chapters where it feels like he was given a deadline by his editor to get it done and he did it in one long all nighter. Quite disappointed and it really ruined what was an otherwise an exciting story. The last two have been like this as well.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great story!!!

Overall a great story. Brad Thor is an amazing writer.
Narrating as always, was done with exceptional attention to the characters, and brought the story to life.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great thriller!

Always enjoy Brad Thor books! Narration was very good as well, can't wait to get to the next book.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Was this written by an algorithm?

Went in hyped to listen to a cool spy thriller, but got Threat Level Midnight instead. Oh well 🤷‍♂️

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

This one was a letdown

The story begins with our hero trying to drink himself to death in response to losing those closest to him... Just like Alexander Hawke in Ted Bell’s book “Warlord”. The only difference is that Ted Bell manage to write it in a way that was much more raw and believable. In this story Scot Harvath has a pool of assassins competing to be the ones to kill him and collect an enormous reward... In book one of “The Gray Man” series, Court Gentry found himself in the same predicament. The difference here is that Mark Greaney managed to create a far more intricate and exciting story around this plot idea. Is Brad Thor running out of ideas and finding new ones in other books in the genre??? I doubt it, but this one definitely felt like he did clumsy work with other authors ideas.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great listening

The story line was exciting did not drag and the narrators were sharp and clear. Great listening.

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  • Wayne
  • 2020-07-22

Excellent but not his best!

Frankly, I believe Brad Thor's very first novel The Lions of Lucerne is his best. NEAR DARK, Book 19 in the series, finds Scot Harvath drowning his sorrows in alcohol after losing his wife and his mentor in Backlash. He also turned down becoming leader the Carlson Group. Then he learns that someone has placed a $100 million bounty on his head and that the prize has been offered to the first person who kills him assuring that his potential killers are many.

Claudia Mueller first appears in Thor's first novel and she makes a minor appearance in Near Dark. Norwegian intelligence officer Sølvi Kolstad has a major role in this novel. She has the potential to become a co-protagonist in this series.

I've read or listened to all 19 series novels soon after they were released. I believed Thor had the potential to be as good as Vince Flynn, but he is not. Several modern authors of the espionage genre including Mark Greaney, Jack Carr, Tom Wood, Alex Berenson, Brad Taylor, Daniel Silva and Ben Coes have clearly surpassed Thor. Thor is good, but is at the bottom of the top tier.

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33 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • stuartjash
  • 2020-07-21

A fantastic novel but narration is lacking

I have listened to all of Brad Thor's novels. The stories continue to get better and better, and NEAR DARK is no exception. This book is a phenomenal work of fiction with a non-stop pace that keeps your heart rate going long after the story is over. I don't think it tops Backlash or some of Thor's earlier novels, but it is still a fantastic read in the thriller genre.

The issue with this, and all, of the Brad Thor audiobooks is with the narration. Armand Schultz has narrated ALL of the books, so if you like him as a narrator, you'll love this book. Personally, I can't stand Schultz. The cadence is off, and the voice sounds robotic. I can't bare listening to this book at 1x speed. I have to be >1.5x. Most books, I listen around 1.3x, but this one, I'm at 2.0x. It's the only way to make Schultz sound semi-normal in the narration. It doesn't sound like he's narrating, but rather that he's just reading a book. If you're used to thriller narrators like Ray Porter, Jay Snyder, Bon Shaw, Scott Brick, George Guidall, etc., I don't think you'll enjoy this narration. Somehow, Schultz makes Harvath sound like the most arrogant, unbearable person on the planet.

The narration is unfortunate because the novel is so good. I'd recommend reading this book as opposed to listening to the audiobook.

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28 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Bullwinkle J. Moose
  • 2020-07-29

Overall eeh

It seems like Thor gave up going toward the end and just pushed through without any details, just summarization. We were owed more than that having gone through the entire book. The narrator grows on you, but at first listen seems to be a bad choice. Overall a disappointment; waste of time and a credit.

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11 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Son V. Tao
  • 2020-08-24

Don’t waste your credit

I’ve read all but two of Brad Thor’s books (listener to other 2) and this was by far the worst. I don’t understand how some of y’all state the action is nonstop. About 1/3 of the book is just the backstory behind Scot Harvath. Honestly, Mr. Harvath was definitely a wuss in this book compared to all the others. It was slow and made even worst by the narrator. The last two books have been substandard compared to previous books. Don’t waste your credit.

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10 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Crystal B.
  • 2020-07-31

Getting by on Scot Harvath's reputation alone

I don't consider myself to be overly critical of books in this genre and am content to go along with the flow, but honestly, I can't imagine this book would have been able to be published if it wasn't written by Brad Thor and didn't include Scot Harvath. I've read/listened to all of the series, so when I read reviews stating that this book is Thor's "best yet" I can't help but wonder if we are talking about the same book. I rarely write reviews, but when I finish a book like this and then see a bunch of 5 star glowing one line reviews I am left scratching my head and figure I may as well voice a differing opinion.

I really enjoyed the last two installments in the series, but this didn't even come close to living up to the rest of the series. About half-way through the book I was listening during an hour workout and realized after the workout that not only had almost NOTHING happened during the hour that I had been listening, very little had happened AT ALL in the overall story line as well. I rarely have had 4 hours remaining on a 10+ hour book and wondered how much longer it was going to take for the story to pick up. There was a LOT of recap, no suspense, very little action, and a plot wrap-up in the last few pages of the book that even a non-critic could spot as an easy way to cop out on finishing the story. Really, It was bad. Maybe I noticed it more since I was so over the lack of decent story line that I gave up on the last 2 hours of audio and switched to reading the book so I could finish it more quickly. It probably would have been if the book had ended at about the 90% mark with a 'To Be Continued', as the last 10% of the book should really have been what 60% of the book was about.

That being said, I'm sure I'll listen to the next one when it comes out. Maybe this one just gets Harvath over the post-Lara slump and we'll get a little bit better plotting and pacing next year.

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7 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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  • Anonymous User
  • 2020-07-29

Writing worthless books for money now-

This is absolutely not worth your credit. I guess Thor is writing books just for money now. Too bad!

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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Logan Crawford
  • 2020-07-27

I'm sad

I love Thor, read every book hes written for Scot, but the last two novels left alot to be desired. this one lacks a main villain. the villain we are given is 4 rungs undernearth the actual bad guy. not only that, we never actually see our villain do villainy things. also a book about a bounty being placed on your hero should have more than two bounty hunters. it's hard to write a review because it's honestly forgettable and that's not something I can say about the previous Scot Harvath books.

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7 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • WMc
  • 2020-07-24

A departure from the normal plot line, but perhaps the best book of the series

The story included a lot of back references to the previous book. At first, they seemed unnecessary, but as the story progressed, they enhanced the current plot line.

I was also very happy to have Nichols return!

The ending felt very rushed. An additional 2-3 hours would have been appropriate to fill the missing content.

I have been a Harvath fan for many years. Despite the lack of detail in the last chapters, it was a very enjoyable read.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • kiki
  • 2020-08-02

As always crazy good!

Crazy good. Just wish Mr. Thor could write a bit faster!! Can’t wait for the next.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • bhamdad
  • 2020-07-22

Strap In. Great Read.

Brad Thor keeps on bringing the heat. From the opening page, it grabbed me and didn’t let go. When I preorder and the book delivers beyond my expectations, I have found my happy place.

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2 people found this helpful