I am arriving way late to the Vince Flynn/Mitch Rapp party because, if I count correctly, "Pursuit of Honor" is Flynn's tenth book in the Mitch Rapp series. It is my first exposure to the character - and I only wish I had arrived earlier. But the good news is that, although I have a lot of catching up to do, getting there should be quite a ride.

"Pursuit of Honor" starts just a few days after a terrorist attack on Washington D.C. has killed 185 people, including several members of Congress and other government officials. The terrorists even had the audacity to strike directly at the country's counterterrorism nerve center where they managed to slaughter a good number of people before Mitch Rapp and his partner, Mike Nash, stop them with an audacious counterattack of their own.

When the smoke clears, three terrorists are still on the run, including the two responsible for planning the attacks, and Mitch Rapp wants them. More tellingly, he is willing to do whatever it takes to get them. Rapp is a realist, not a politician. He is not concerned with being politically correct, only with keeping his country and its citizens safe from the religious fanatics that are so willing to slaughter innocents in the name of their god. Rapp believes that assassination is a legitimate tool in a war in which the other side judges its victories in terms of civilian body count imposed and he is as ready to kill American traitors as he is Muslim terrorists. This does not, of course, make him popular with certain members of Congress.

Unfortunately for Rapp, and even more unfortunately for America, a handful of Congressmen have become so obsessed with his methods that they seem to be more concerned with seeing Rapp in prison than with protecting the country. They hold Mitch Rapp in contempt - and he returns the favor. Readers more aligned with Rapp's way of thinking will particularly relish his confrontation with a female California senator during which the senator demands that Rapp address her as "Senator" rather than as "Ma'am." What Mitch Rapp says at this meeting is typical of his politics and, as offensive as his views will be to some readers, what he expresses fits his character perfectly. This is who Mitch Rapp is, after all.

Vince Flynn keeps the tension in "Pursuit of Honor" at a high level by alternating chapters about Rapp and his team with those about the three terrorists trying to make their way unnoticed across Middle America. And, because Rapp has to spend so much of his time working the political side of the search, the chapters about the three terrorists, particularly those concerning the conflicts within that small group, are the book's most tense ones. Flynn slowly brings the two groups closer and closer to each other until they finally clash in the book's wild ending.

What Mitch Rapp's congressional critics fail to recognize is that he is a moral man. His moral code may not be theirs but Rapp knows the difference between good and evil and he has dedicated his life to evil's defeat, something that does not always seem to be the goal of his most vocal critics. Whether the real world would be a safer - or a more dangerous - place if there were more Mitch Rapps in it is subject to debate. But "Pursuit of Honor" does make one wonder.

Rated at: 5.0 ( )

Couldn't put it down! Mitch Rapp - what a man!! ( )

The fact that I kept falling asleep while reading a Mitch Rapp story should be enough of a review. I felt as if Flynn had no idea what story he wanted to tell. He started with one story, seemed to either get bored or run out of ideas, then switched to another story. Finally, following one of those "yeah, right" coincidences, the action part of the story kicked into gear, but that was only the last 50 pages or so. Unfortunately, this was by far the least enjoyable Mitch Rapp novel. ( )

Mitch Rapp, an off the book CIA operative, gets involved with finding the three terrorists who are responsible for a bombing of a Washington D.C. social spot. This is an up-to-date book that held my interest till I finished it.( and I didn't put the book down till it was finished) ( )

I love Vince Flynn books buying them as soon as they are released. His newest book, Pursuit of Honor, continues the story of CIA Operative Mitch Rapp and the war against terrorism. It, like all his other books, was a great read. The characters are well developed, the plot is scarily real, and it all happens at neckbreaking speed. If you like the early Tom Clancy books and have not tried Vince Flynn do so now (although I would recommend starting with one of the first books). If you have never read anything by Vince Flynn, be warned, the book is pretty politically charged (ie. torture to extract information from terrorists)-I would call it a political thriller.

If you are a Vince Flynn fanatic you will not be disappointed. One final note, while I hate comparing books to TV or movie I must state that if you like the TV series 24 I think you would love this book.