Series: Book 2 in the Mitch Rapp series
Rating: ****
Tags: Thrillers, General, Suspense, Fiction, Lang:en
Summary
When diplomacy has failed and military intervention
is deemed inappropriate, our leaders sometimes take THE
THIRD OPTION
CIA counterterrorism operative Mitch Rapp falls prey to
government forces with an agenda of their own after Dr. Irene
Kennedy is named the successor to dying CIA Director Thomas
Stansfield—a choice that enrages many inside the
world’s most powerful intelligence agency. Her
detractors will resort to extreme measures to prevent her
from taking the reins—which makes Rapp an expendable
asset. But Mitch Rapp is no one’s pawn, and he will
stop at nothing to find out who has set him up. Rancorous political infighting surrounds the selection of
a successor to the dying head of the CIA just as Mitch Rapp,
the agency's top operative, embarks on a dangerous mission to
take out a well-known German industrialist believed to be
supplying Middle East terrorists with highly sensitive
equipment critical to constructing a nuclear bomb. When
Rapp's ultimately successful mission is compromised from
within, ailing CIA director Thomas Stansfield puts his
imprimatur on the efforts of his chosen successor, Irene
Kennedy, director of the agency's Counterterrorism Center, to
identify the powerful interests both inside and outside the
agency that wanted Rapp to fail. The motive soon becomes clear; there are people who'll
stop at nothing to remove Kennedy from the helm of the agency
after Stansfield dies. One thing they didn't count on was
Rapp's survival, and now he's a lethal weapon whose sights
are fixed directly on the most powerful among them. This is a
strong, swift thriller, a bit predictable (the senator in the
black hat has dogs named Caesar and Brutus) but nonetheless
involving. Author Vince Flynn sustains the dramatic tension
from the opening paragraph to the last; in Mitch Rapp, he's
got the makings of a promising series hero.
--Jane Adams
A CIA counterterrorist gets caught in the middle of a
deadly Beltway power play in Flynn's (Balance of Power)
latest political thriller. Long on one-dimensional
characters, action scenes and espionage details, it falls
short on comprehensible plotting. Battle-scarred protagonist
Mitch Rapp returns to take on a sensitive new assignment in
Europe, only to have things go awry when his two CIA
colleagues turn on him following the assassination of a
wealthy German count who has been selling arms to Saddam
Hussein. Rapp survives their double-dealing, but he is forced
to go underground to decipher the labyrinthine chain of
political connections and to learn who was trying to have him
killed. Back in Washington, a similar game of spy-versus-spy
is being conducted by the elderly, dying director of the CIA
and his chosen successor. Rapp eventually surfaces to help
his bosses, but things get personal for the ace
counterterrorist when Rapp's bride-to-be is kidnapped as part
of the ongoing political maneuvers. Flynn sweats the small
stuff to bring his conspiracy to life, but he also introduces
enough secondary characters to populate two novels, and he
frequently stalls the narrative momentum by providing an
overwhelming level of detail regarding various high-tech
gadgets and espionage operations. The biggest disappointment,
though, comes at the end, when the book is exposed as a
shameless setup for a sequel. Flynn is a popular writer, but
his third thriller won't do much to enhance his critical
reputation or his sales. 9-city author tour. (Nov.)
Amazon.com Review
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.