- Flynn, Vince.
Pursuit of Honor.
New York: Pocket Books, 2009.
ISBN 978-1-4165-9517-5.
-
This is the tenth novel in the
Mitch Rapp
(warning—the article at this link contains minor spoilers)
saga, and the conclusion of the story which began in the
previous volume,
Extreme Measures (July 2010).
In that book, a group of terrorists staged an attack in
Washington D.C., with the ringleaders managing to disappear
in the aftermath. In the present novel, it's time for payback,
and Mitch Rapp and his team goes on the trail not only of the
terrorists but also their enablers within the U.S. government.
The author says that you should be able to pick up and enjoy any of
his novels without any previous context,
but in my estimation you'll miss a great deal if you
begin here without having read Extreme Measures.
While an attempt is made (rather clumsily, it seemed to me)
to brief the reader in on the events of the previous novel,
those who start here will miss much of the character development
of the terrorists Karim and Hakim, and the tension between
Mitch Rapp and Mike Nash, whose curious parallels underlie
the plot.
This is more a story of character development and conflict
between personalities and visions than action, although
it's far from devoid of the latter. There is some edgy political
content in which I believe the author shows his contempt for
certain factions and figures on the Washington scene, including
“Senator ma'am”. The conclusion is satisfying although
deliberately ambiguous in some regards. I appear to have been wrong
in my review of Extreme Measures about
where the author was taking Mike Nash, but then you never know.
This book may, in terms of the timeline, be the end of the
Mitch Rapp series. Vince Flynn's forthcoming novel,
American Assassin, is a
“prequel”, chronicling Rapp's recruitment into
the CIA, training, and deployment on his first missions.
Still, it's difficult in the extreme to cork a loose cannon, so
I suspect in the coming years we'll see further exploits
by Mitch Rapp on the contemporary scene.
October 2010 