American Assassin
A Mitch Rapp Mystery by Vince Flynn
Review: Vince Flynn provides an introduction to his popular series character, CIA counter-terrorism operative Mitch Rapp, in American Assassin, a prequel set in the late 1980s.
As a young, athletic and intelligent, Mitch Rapp awaits the arrival of his fiancé home from Europe, he's stunned to learn the flight she's on, Pan Am 103, has fallen from the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, the result of a terrorist bomb placed aboard the plane. Angry, he's open to an opportunity presented by the CIA to become an undercover agent for their Special Operations Group. When Irene Kennedy, an agent working for Director Thomas Stansfield, met the twenty-two year old Rapp, it was apparent to her that he was the one they were seeking for a unique project. His potential immediately recognized, he was stripped of his identity — a person with no official record, a person who doesn't exist. He would be trained, honed and forged into a ultimate precision weapon and he would begin to hunt down every faceless person who had conspired or would conspire to harm innocent civilians. Although he had never killed a man before, when his training is over, under the leadership of cantankerous Stan Hurley, he is ready to kill … and kill again. He no longer sees a youthful college student in the mirror; rather, he sees the face of a killer. With Stansfield acting as judge and jury, Rapp is the executioner, his assignments taking him to Istanbul; then on to Hamburg and all across Europe, where he leaves a trail of bodies in his wake. Rapp has no way of knowing that the enemy has become aware of his existence — he has no official existence. But it isn’t long before the hunter becomes the hunted.
American Assassin is a pulse-pounding thriller, one not easily put down, but it is also a dark, at times deeply disturbing one. Graphic scenes of torture, for example, are included that, while not gratuitous, are nonetheless gruesome. Still, this book is mostly about character: Mitch Rapp, a strong, natural leader who is given a task and sets out to accomplish it. Yet there are limits to what he can and should do, and these are explored here from several perspectives. Rapp's joining the CIA was not altruistic; he wanted revenge. But personal revenge can cloud professional judgment, and by the end of his training, Rapp knows — or at least is aware of — the difference. American Assassin is certainly an exciting novel, one that now provides a foundation for all that follows in Rapp's life (or, in this case, the ten novels that precede it and, undoubtedly, the many more to come).
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of American Assassin.
Acknowledgment: Simon & Schuster provided a copy of American Assassin for this review.
Review Copyright © 2010 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Selected reviews of other mysteries by this author …
Kill Shot
Atria Books (Hardcover), February 2012
ISBN-13: 9781416595205; ISBN-10: 1416595201
Location(s) referenced in American Assassin: Washington DC
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American Assassin by Vince Flynn
Publisher: Atria Books
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 1-4165-9518-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-9518-2
Publication Date: October 2010
List Price: $27.99
Synopsis (from the publisher): Before he was considered a CIA superagent, before he was thought of as a terrorist’s worst nightmare, and before he was both loathed and admired by the politicians on Capitol Hill, Mitch Rapp was a gifted college athlete without a care in the world … and then tragedy struck.
Two decades of cutthroat, partisan politics has left the CIA and the country in an increasingly vulnerable position. Cold War veteran and CIA Operations Director Thomas Stansfield knows he must prepare his people for the next war. The rise of Islamic terrorism is coming, and it needs to be met abroad before it reaches America’s shores. Stansfield directs his protege, Irene Kennedy, and his old Cold War colleague, Stan Hurley, to form a new group of clandestine operatives who will work outside the normal chain of command—men who do not exist.
What type of man is willing to kill for his country without putting on a uniform? Kennedy finds him in the wake of the Pan Am Lockerbie terrorist attack. Two-hundred and seventy souls perished that cold December night, and thousands of family and friends were left searching for comfort. Mitch Rapp was one of them, but he was not interested in comfort. He wanted retribution.
Six months of intense training has prepared him to bring the war to the enemy’s doorstep, and he does so with brutal efficiency. Rapp starts in Istanbul, where he assassinates the Turkish arms dealer who sold the explosives used in the Pan Am attack. Rapp then moves onto Hamburg with his team and across Europe, leaving a trail of bodies. All roads lead to Beirut, though, and what Rapp doesn’t know is that the enemy is aware of his existence and has prepared a trap. The hunter is about to become the hunted, and Rapp will need every ounce of skill and cunning if he is to survive the war-ravaged city and its various terrorist factions.