Vince Flynn’s Consent to Kill: Mitch Rapp is in the crosshairs

Mitch Rapp is a shadowy CIA employee with a reputation that causes most people to fear him. For years Rapp has operated quietly on the margins of society, methodically hunting down terrorists and other assorted “bad guys”. Most recently he assassinated several fanatical Muslims who were planning to detonate a nuclear bomb in Washington DC.

However,the tables are now turned. Saeed Ahmed Abdullah, a fabulously wealthy Saudi businessman, had a son who was killed by Mitch Rapp. Saeed has hired Erich Abel, a former East-German Stasi agent, to find Rapp and kill him for revenge.

Abel has a long history of executing covert operations, including assassinations. However, he fears doing the dirty work himself against Rapp, and hires-out a husband and wife team to kill Rapp. In the meantime, Abel greedily wrangles with Saeed over the cost of his services. He envisions netting millions of dollars from this job and retiring form his grisly line of work to a mountaintop retreat in Austria.

In Washington DC Mitch Rapp and CIA Director Irene Kennedy are dealing with a host of domestic political pressures, including an arrogant new Director of National Intelligence who wants Rapp reigned in. At the same time 37-year old Rapp is buffeted by concerns from his wife Anna about his secretive occupation and their thoughts about having a family some day. Anna wants Mitch out of the secret operations line of work now, although she has only a minimal idea of exactly what he actually does.

As the plot progresses Rapp is hobbled by the domestic political situation and some minor health issues. As the assassins close in on Rapp he soon finds his life’s dreams shattered. Rapp, Kennedy, and a close-knit group of secret operatives are soon trying to unravel an assassination ring that stretches from the US to Europe and into the heart of the Middle East.

This is the seventh in a series of “Mitch Rapp” novels written by Vince Flynn. As in the earlier novels, the protagonist Rapp is drawn as cool headed, methodical, and fanatically determined. However, he is showing some signs of aging. And the fact that he kills people for a living, although (secretly) condoned, is causing behind-the-scenes political strife that Rapp is incapable of tolerating. Rapp’s preference is to take matters into his own hands and eliminate anyone who is standing in the way of doing what is right.

I was glad to see that Flynn is developing some more depth to in Rapp’s character compared to earlier novels. He is shown to have some concerns about continuing in his line of work and wants to focus on his marriage. Other characters in the book are less well developed, although I wouldn’t say they are all cardboard cutouts.

Consent to Kill is told from a third-person perspective throughout and is a bit light on dialogue at times. Sometimes entire pages are narrative explaining what is going on in the plot. I don’t mind this, but a reader looking for lots of snappy dialogue from the characters in the book may be disappointed.

Flynn’s writing is very focused and the plot moves along steadily. At times the scenarios are pretty tense as follows:

Abel started to turn around but was stopped by a gloved hand that clamped down on his neck with an alarming firmness. The man was so close he could smell coffee on his breath….”Don’t”. The grip tightened. “Not unless you’d like me to sever your spinal cord.” [p. 84]

Although there are six previous novels in this series by Flynn you do not need to read them in order. There are references to events that happened in earlier books, but I believe the author has filled in enough details to allow Consent to Kill stand on it’s own. Flynn tends to incorporate current events into his novels and Consent to Kill follows this pattern. There are references to Islamic terrorists and the US military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Overall I thought this was a very well done novel. Except for a chapter or two near the end the plot moves along steadily and has a decent amount of action. The dialogue is not always real imaginative but I think the characters are rather believable. If you’re a fan of espionage or political thriller novels you will most likely enjoy Consent to Kill. I rate it as 4.5 stars, rounded to 5.

Other review that may interest you:

Memorial Day by Vince Flynn
http://www.epinions.com/content_155741228676

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