Brad Thor

Brad Thor (born Bradley George Thor Jr., 1969) is an American thriller writer best known for the long-running Scot Harvath series, which follows a former Navy SEAL and Secret Service agent turned elite counterterrorism operative through more than twenty books since his 2002 debut, The Lions of Lucerne, winner of the Barry Award for Best First Novel. Thor's early work as a member of the Department of Homeland Security's Analytic Red Cell — a think tank that stress-tests national-security threats by thinking like an adversary — feeds directly into the series' plotting, which favors real-world geopolitical flashpoints and hard-edged tradecraft over pure escapism. On this site, Thor appears via Cold Zero (2026), an Arctic-set espionage thriller he co-wrote with fellow thriller author Ward Larsen, standing outside the main Harvath continuity. Readers wanting the character that made his name should start with The Lions of Lucerne rather than Cold Zero, since Scot Harvath's series is a continuous, cumulative story best read in order. A Scot Harvath television adaptation has been in development for several years, with Sony Pictures Television and director Chad Stahelski attached, alongside an earlier film option on the novel Takedown, so a screen version may be on the way even though none has premiered yet.