Act of Treason

Review by Jeremy Taylor

For white-knuckle political suspense, there is none better than Vince Flynn. Flynn’s protagonist, Mitch Rapp, is the ultimate hero, a fearless, ultra-masculine CIA operative with a hidden sensitive side. His basic sense of patriotic morality, coupled with an uncompromising commitment to defending American ideals, is a refreshing constant in an age of anti-American relativism.

The book opens with a bang, as an assassin blows up the limousine in which the wife of a presidential candidate is riding, killing her and her Secret Service escort. The candidate is swept into office on a sympathy vote, but the nation wants to know who perpetrated this vicious act, and Mitch Rapp, still emotionally raw from the murder of show more his own wife, is tasked with finding out who is responsible.

As Rapp follows leads and vigorously “questions” suspects, it soon becomes clear that the guilty parties lie much closer to home than anyone suspects. And with only days left before the new president-elect takes office, Mitch Rapp and CIA Director Irene Kennedy are faced with the most important decision of their careers: should they keep silent for the good of the country and face termination under the new administration, or should they go public with what they have uncovered and perhaps upset the political balance in the United States government for years to come?

The book’s premise is believable and realistic, but sadly Act of Treason does not live up to the high expectations Flynn set with his previous novels. The main problem is the concept. Whereas Executive Power, Memorial Day, and Consent to Kill dealt with large-scale, almost alarmingly current and relevant issues (primarily terrorism and ongoing political/religious strife in the Middle East), this latest offering limits its scope to a domestic political situation, rendering it comparatively unexciting. Throughout the book, I couldn’t help wondering when the opening conflict would be resolved so that the real action could get underway. It wasn’t until three-quarters of the way through the book that I realized the primary conflict was going to be the only conflict.

Still, Flynn’s writing is as fast-paced and dramatic as ever, and though the characterizations are perhaps less thoughtful than his aforementioned previous novels, the suspense and pacing are no less satisfying. Depictions of the politics surrounding the government’s love-hate relationship with the CIA and the complexities inherent in the process of a change of power in the White House are satisfying. Readers who have enjoyed previous Mitch Rapp stories will find plenty to like about Act of Treason. What’s missing seems to be the sense of urgency and immediacy that Flynn has built his reputation on.

In today’s world of real-life international suspense and intrigue, it seems reasonable to expect that a fictional reflection of that reality should provide an equally complex foundation. This book settles for relative simplicity, and the story, while enjoyable, suffers as a result.

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Title: Act of Treason
Series: Mitch Rapp #7
Author: Vince Flynn
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 348
Words: 116K

Synopsis:

From the Publisher

Fallout from a horrific Washington explosion has just begun -- and so has CIA superagent Mitch Rapp's hunt for a killer with a personal agenda.

In the final weeks of a fierce presidential campaign, a motorcade carrying candidate Josh Alexander is shattered by a car bomb. Soon after the attack, show more Alexander is carried to victory by a sympathy vote, but his assailants have not been found.

When CIA director Irene Kennedy and Special Agent Skip McMahon receive damaging intelligence on Washington's most powerful players, they call on Mitch Rapp -- the one man reckless enough to unravel a global network of contract killers on an explosive mission that leads back to the heart of our nation's capital...and the inner sanctum of the Oval Office.

My Thoughts:

After the last book, Consent to Kill, where I rage quit because the author took the easy way out and killed off Rapp's wife and unborn child, I needed a time out with this series. A couple of months seemed long enough and so I dived back in, not sure what to expect.

Thankfully, I didn't get Rapp immediately jumping into bed with either a femme fatale or a dusky heroine. The romance was nil and Rapp is shown to be pretty unstable. He's still able to perform his job but he's starting to age (I believe he's 39 in this book) and he's simply in denial about the tragedy.

I thought Flynn did an excellent job of showing a man who is cracking up. I really feel like killing of Rapp's wife and baby was a mistake by Flynn, as I was looking forward to how he was going to balance the whole “killing machine vs family man” dynamic he had going. This book, while not redeeming that, at least didn't make it greater by having Rapp turn into the stereotypical action/adventure character of a bedhopping manwhore.

★★★☆☆ show less

A nice break from Flynn's terrorist-chasing routine. This time it's more about domestic intrigue, but still enough exotic locales to keep Flynn's fan's interested. Also (almost) no torture scenes and more character development than usual. My one minor problem is that Mr. Flynn creates Democrat presidents who are WAY too supportive of the CIA and the work they do. It's probably his way of appearing unbiased, considering his clearly right wing inclinations. Not a deal-breaker, but takes away from the realism of his stories just a bit.

Act of Treason, by Vince Flynn, is a continuation of the author's series featuring Mitch Rapp, a CIA undercover agent. In this book, Rapp investigates an explosion that kills the President Elect's wife, and discovers that people from within the US government itself are involved in the bombing.

Unlike other LT reviewers, I found Act of Treason to be - by far - the weakest of Flynn's books that I have read. The action was slow, the characters weakly drawn, and the writing poorer than usual. This book felt like it was written to meet a deadline. I don't expect books in the political thriller genre to be particularly well-written or to have finely drawn characters. However, I do expect an intriguing mystery and lots of action - that's why I show more read them. However, Act of Treason contains neither. The mystery is easily solved by the reader well before the book's half-way mark, and as for action - after the opening scene, there is none. This was the first book in a long time that I almost didn't finish. show less

This was a good Flynn book, but not a great one. At this point, even a good Flynn book to me is light years above other authors. This one seemed to focus a little less on Mitch Rapp and a little more on general political intrigue occurring in and around D.C. I still found it enjoyable to read, but not quite the page turner that past Flynn entries have been.

The book equivalent of a Hollywood conspiracy/action movie - you can see Steven Seagal in the Mitch Rapp role. To say this book runs to c 400 pages there is little in the way of plot that needed to extend beyond half that length. The author fills the book with too much detailed exposition, which sucks all the tension away. It picks up in the final pages but the ending becomes rushed and unsatisfying. Additionally a number of interesting characters are introduced and disappear - notably FBI agent Skip McMahon. Whilst I found the premise of the plot interesting the characters were often two-dimensional - despite Flynn's attempts to add back story - and the dialogue and situations risible. There were the occasional flashes of inspiration show more and wit, but these were undone by the overly familiar approach to the subject matter. show less

InAct of Treason, Vince Flynn shows readers the underside of political power, where mercenaries are born and thrive and betrayal is business as usual. A fast and furious page-turner from beginning to end, "thrillers do not get any better than this." --Copley News Service