1. Does a story like this make you change how you see a suitcase without an owner, a bag left under a table, a person walking by dressed inappropriately for the weather, a street with too many taxis parked along it?
2. How does this plot parallel current threats to our country?
3. What does the Troll character bring to the plot? What makes him such a popular character in Brad Thor’s books? What does Harvath get out of the relationship with the Troll?
4. Harvath wrestles with the issue of having children. Have you wrestled with this issue? If so, what are your thoughts?
5. What are your thoughts regarding Burt Taylor’s frustration with the police, “…if we want our daughter’s case to get the attention it deserves, we’ve got to pay someone…”?
6. What do you think of blue light cameras? Are they/should they be for solving or deterring crime?
7. What do you think life is like for a person like Abdul Rashid/Sean Chase? Could you devote yourself to a completely different persona to help your country, or to get at the truth? What would that be like?
8. What do you think of using a private company, The Carlton Group, for intelligence gathering? What are the pros and cons of doing this?
9. What are your thoughts about your personal information? How far should the private or public sector be allowed to go to gather information in the name of “national security”?
10. Think of father Peio. What would you do if you lost your spouse or child as a result of a terrorist act?
11. Think of the Troll. What are your thoughts about being framed for something you didn’t do? What would you do?
12. Can you understand martyrdom? What does it take for a culture to embrace martyrdom?
13. What do you think of women as operatives? What are the different situations where women are preferable to men as operatives? When are men preferable to women?
14. What did you think of the ending?