THE APOSTLE: BRAD THOR

At Jill and Drew's recommendation, I began a best selling series by Brad Thor, better than Jack Reacher according to Jill, about an ex special forces guy named Scott Horvath.  Like other novels of this genre and unlike Reacher, it seems more contemporary, as this particular novel is set in Afghanistan.  A wealthy and influential female donor to the President Alden, Stephanie Gallo, has her daughter kidnapped by Taliban and they demand the release of a fellow comrade, a Osama like figure.  Of course, in the nation's interest this cannot be done, but because it's Stephanie's daughter, ex operative Scott Horvath is called in, given cash and the help of the military, and single handedly, he flies in, manages, of  course, to extract her and save the day. There was a subplot which seemed out of place and very political to me, as a secret service agent, in charge of guarding the President, discovers that he has lied about the death of one of his aides, like Teddy Kennedy back in the 70's, she won't let the rumors go until she finally confronts the President and he is forced to resign.  What this has to do with Scott Horvath and the adventure story is not clear to me, other than pleasing the right, the Wall Street Journal readers, and the Tea Party, who don't read probably.  A would give it a C - and will probably try one more to see if this was an exception.