AMERICAN ASSASSIN by Vince Flynn - SIGNED FIRST EDITION BOOK
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Read John's review under staff review/press release
#1 New York Times bestselling author Vince Flynn returns with yet another explosive thriller, introducing the young Mitch Rapp, as he takes on his first assignment.
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.
As action-packed, fast-paced, and brutally realistic as it gets, Flynn’s latest page-turner shows readers how it all began. Behind the steely gaze of the nation’s ultimate hero is a young man primed to become an American Assassin.
Okay, I must admit I took a break from my regular reading to indulge myself with two recent arrivals, Vince Flynn’s American Assassin, and Lee Child’s Worth Dying For.
Yes, there are some similarities between Mitch Rapp, Flynn’s CIA trained assassin, and Jack Reacher, Child’s ex-military cop do-gooder. They are both bigger than life heroes who overcome the odds and come out on top when it just doesn’t seem possible, or even believable, but then who cares. “ It’s about the adrenalin dummy!”
In American Assassin, Flynn rounds out the Mitch Rapp character by telling us how he came to be the CIA’s top operative. We learn about the early days of his relationships with Stan Hurley, Irene Kennedy, Thomas Stanfield, and the other CIA functionaries who fill the pages of earlier Rapp novels. American Assassin is a vintage Vince Flynn novel, the prequel to his Rapp-Kennedy series that Flynn says he has wanted to write for years. The issue of terrorism and the methods needed to keep America safe sit front stage in each Flynn novel, and American Assassin is no exception. If you are looking for political correctness, or negotiation instead of action, do not read this book.
“But I am a rookie, so how much harm can I really do.” It was a statement, not a question. If you are a Mitch Rapp fan you already know the answer, but don’t miss the story behind it!
In Worth Dying For, Lee Child emerges fresh from 61 Hours (that still sits on top of the NY Times list). Jack Reacher once again finds himself on the road, heading to Virginia, through Nebraska, cornhusker territory.
First he finds himself on the bad side of a local clan that has terrified an entire county into submission. What first looks like a single domestic violence case expands into a dangerous crime food chain that stretches halfway around the world. The unsolved case of a missing child, already decades-old, holds Reacher in yet another remote community, when his best option is to “just move on.”
The clan, the Duncans, use Nebraska football rejects for enforcement in their little fiefdom. Their size and methods are not lost on Reacher, and he teaches them the difference between fighting and winning.
“He raised his hand like a traffic cop. Then he placed his hand on Reacher’s chest . . . . Reacher said, ‘What’s your name fat boy?’ The guy said, “My name?” ‘It’s not a difficult question.’ ‘Brett.’ Reacher said, ‘So here’s the thing Brett. Either you take your hand off my chest, or I’ll take it off your wrist.”
Worth Dying For is the kind of explosive thriller only Lee Child could write and only Jack Reacher could survive--a heart-racing page-turner you won’t want to miss.
Now it’s back to the stacks to read those books for next season . . . but wait, there’s a new Stephen Hunter book here. What? Bob Lee Swagger you say. Oh well, the more literary things will have to wait another day, ‘cuz I’ve got a world-class sniper with a story to tell. HOOAH!
John
