“Code of Conduct” by Brad Thor – Peacekeeping through Violence

Whereas a few decades ago countries were mostly left to solve their own struggles internally, we have somewhere along the line stepped over into the age of inter-connectedness, one where a people's struggles can be shared with the entire world.

The many wars endured in the 20th century have led to the formation of international committees and organizations designed to keep the peace and intervene in chaotic situations where a country's internal resources may not be enough to restore order to chaos.

Such is the fate of numerous countries where people place their hopes on UN peacekeeping troops, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Brad Thor begins his story in Code of Conduct.

To give a brief overview of what it's all about, Code of Conduct sees Scot Harvarth, counter-terrorist extraordinaire, being sent halfway across the world into Congo to acquire information on a UN-sanctioned clinic after a disturbing four-second video is anonymously sent to Washington DC.

From there on out the thriller unfolds as Harvath dives deeper and deeper into a web of espionage, deceit and violence, one that will eventually lead him to some of the evilest men on Earth, part of a secret elite society of untouchables by virtue of their wealth and power.

Now, to begin with, on one hand Code of Conduct is an extremely engrossing, captivating and well-written thriller that quickly picks up the pace and doesn't let up until the end. There are plenty of twists and turns to go about and you'll find yourself surprised on more than one occasion at the depths some people can plunge to.

I have to say, even though on the surface the villains may sound a bit cliched, once you get a bit closer to them and see what they are capable of they turn into real monsters, ones that will make the hair stand on your head, especially at the thought of such people existing in real life.

In addition to that, there is a certain layer of depth added to the action, and it manages to be rather fulfilling even though not as much of the book is devoted to it. We get a few rather interesting glimpses inside Scot's mind and understand his motivations for what he is doing as well as his general perspective on the world around.

Most of the characters are strongly and quickly developed, in the sense that we get a good idea of what they're all about through a few of their extreme thoughts and actions. The characters do as good of a job at driving the story as the plot itself does.

Naturally, being a fantastic thriller doesn't prevent this book from being something much more important: politically-pertinent. The media may not say all that much about it, but there are more and more scandals popping up left and right revolving around UN “peacekeeping” forces and the savage, brutal and unforgivable practices some have come to enact.

The civilians in numerous African countries living under conflict, such as Liberia and the Congo, try to denounce those actions, but to no avail. This book sheds light on this very important issue, that of the corruption of those who ought to be leading by example.

All in all, Code of Conduct succeeds fantastically at being an engaging and fast-paced thriller with characters that leave their mark on the reader, one that also looks into a real-world issue which needs to be addressed at all costs.

Fans of political and covert military ops thrillers will love this book.

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Brad Thor Personal site Brad Thor is an American novelist whose specialization is pretty much officially the thriller. His work The Last Patriot was nominated by the International Thriller Writers Association for the Best Thriller of the Year, while Blowback had the honor of finding a place on National Public Radio's 100 Best Ever Killer Thrillers list.