Conspiracies abound in ‘Hidden Order’

An organization more secretive than the FBI, the CIA or the NSA takes center stage in Brad Thor’s latest adventure featuring former Secret Service agent Scot Harvath.

Harvath, now an operative for a clandestine government agency, receives a call from his superiors to attend a meeting at the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C. The Fed chairman plans to retire, and a list of five candidates to replace him has been leaked. All the candidates disappear, and it appears that an enemy bent on destroying the U.S. economy is responsible.

The missing candidates turn up dead, one by one. Each murder scene is littered with symbolic scenes tied to events from the American Revolution. Someone wants to start another revolt — and take the Federal Reserve along with it.

The backdrop of “Hidden Order” deals with the mysterious origins of the Federal Reserve and common misconceptions about how it operates. The blending of fact and fiction appears seamless, and conspiracies abound. The best thrillers are page-turning machines generated by exciting action and characters the reader cares about. “Hidden Order” has all this — and much more.

Adjusting a bit for inflation, the overall balance is one of Brad Thor’s best books to date.