CarlAlves

I have read other Mitch Rapp novels and was now going back to the original. It was interesting to see his origin after having read of his exploits in other novels. This novel starts off with Mitch being recruited for a black ops, off the book role as an assassin, taking out the worst of the bad guy terrorists. Mitch immediately develops a hate/hate relationship with his mentor Stan Hurley, who thinks that Mitch must be lying about his background, since he is so far advanced for where he should be. He rapidly moves through the training program, even besting Hurley in hand to hand combat in their first encounter. Before long he moves off to working with Hurley in assassinating targets abroad, until Hurley and his other partner are captured by terrorists in Beirut. In a suicidal mission, Mitch lets himself be captured in order to rescue them.

This is an enjoyable novel in many ways. Most of it centers around the Mitch Rapp character. He is a complex and fascinating character, far more interesting than his contemporaries Jack Ryan and Jason Bourne. The pace was a little slower than most of Rapp’s novels, since he has to go through a good deal of training before he becomes who he is. The plot was strong and ended with a bang. The writing is not as tight as it is in future novels. I wasn’t fond of the universal point of view that Vince Flynn employed. All in all, this was a good novel that fans of action thrillers will enjoy.

Carl Alves – author of Reconquest: Mother Earth