Consent to Kill

Mitch Rapp is one of the more interesting characters that I've come across in literature and Vince Flynn is an exceptional writer, so I had set a pretty high bar when I started reading Consent to Kill. Of the thrillers that I have read, Flynn has among the more realistic and gritty portrayals. Most international terrorist type novels are more fantasy than fiction. In Consent To Kill an ultra-rich Arab fundamentalist puts a massive bounty to have Mitch killed, bringing out some heavy hitters to participate in his assassination. When he survives the attempt, he is hell-bent on exacting revenge in the most ruthless fashion possible. Mitch is a pretty intense character to begin with, but he takes it to a new level in this novel. There was a show more high level of violence, so it's not for the squeamish, but it all added to the novel. He hunts down every single person who was involved in the attack, going off the grid. This may be the best of the Vince Flynn novels that I have read and I would highly recommend it.
Carl Alves - author of Blood Street show less

Review by Jeremy Taylor

Can a professional killer have a soft side? Yes, he can, according to Vince Flynn’s latest Mitch Rapp novel—his best to date.

Mitch Rapp is known and feared the world over for his daring exploits in the service of the CIA. He has many powerful friends, most notably the president of the United States. But in his work he has also managed to accrue a number of very powerful enemies.

One of these is a Saudi prince who believes Rapp is responsible for the death of his son (referencing events that occurred in Flynn’s previous novel, Memorial Day). The prince is determined to see Rapp brought down for his sins, so he hires a German contract killer to take care of the American once and for all. The German subcontracts show more the job to a pair of ruthless assassins who have a 100-percent success rate. What follows is a breathtaking international manhunt—but this time, the good guy is the target.

Flynn spends most of his energy developing plausible action scenes rather than character depth, so readers are required to draw on snippets of information presented in previous books to discern certain characters’ motivations and drives. Even so, the character of Mitch Rapp comes across loud and clear, as do his motives for personal revenge after his would-be assassins’ first attempt on his life goes awry.

One of Flynn’s great strengths as a novelist is his ability to ascribe realistic and believable motives to his villains. As many scenes are written from the points of view of either the hired assassins or their Saudi backers as are from Mitch Rapp’s perspective, with the result that by halfway through the book, we feel almost as sympathetic for the killers as we do for the protagonist target. Yet never does the narrative allow the reader to mistake the twisted values of the villains for anything other than what they ultimately are—pure evil.

Consent to Kill is the most thoughtful of Flynn’s thrillers so far, and the added depth pays off. By giving all the main characters a good deal of introspection, Flynn is able to explore the various moral dilemmas that arise in the field of international espionage. Mitch Rapp in most cases makes decisions that go against civilized sensibilities, but on the other hand, it’s important to know that there are people in the real world who have to do difficult, unpleasant, and sometimes horrible things in the interest of national security and relative global stability. The closing scene leaves Rapp facing a choice between his humanity and his sense of human justice—and will leave readers panting for more.

Flynn’s books have almost no spiritual content, Christian or otherwise, and Consent to Kill fits right into that mold. On the other hand, the novels take place in a setting that necessarily includes moral right and wrong—and very often good and evil—as essential components of its underlying structure. The violence is often intense but never meaningless; language is sometimes harsh but rarely superfluous and never out of character.

The world Flynn writes about is sometimes a bleak one, but it’s the one in which we all live, and we all know it has its dark sides. Flynn writes about that darkness, but he doesn’t dwell on it. Rather, he focuses on the efforts of a few dedicated individuals to bring some light and order into the chaos. Christians know that the only real hope for true light and order in the world comes from Jesus Christ—who came “as a light to shine in this dark world” (John 12:46)—a point Flynn’s characters miss completely. But they do their best, given the purely secular worldview that the novels express, and the result is realistic and often moving entertainment.

(http://www.cerebralexchange.com/books/reviews.asp?book=194&host=1) show less

Terrific story!
Writing flow and dialog are better than previous books, and the plot is one of the best yet.
But I'm not sure how I feel about the ending.

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Title: Consent to Kill
Series: Mitch Rapp #6
Author: Vince Flynn
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 514
Words: 174.5K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia & Me

In Flynn's previous novel, Memorial Day, CIA counter-terror operative and assassin Mitch Rapp uncovered an Al-Qaeda plot to use a nuclear weapon obtained from abandoned Russian nuclear storage bunkers. The ultimate goal was the destruction of Washington, D.C., and Rapp was forced to torture the show more only man who knew the details of the plan: Waheed Abdullah. Rapp then faked Waheed's death to prevent the Saudi Government from learning of it and rescuing him, while preserving a useful source for himself. To keep Waheed from being discovered, Rapp puts him in an Afghan prison.

However, this plan backfires: Waheed's father, Saeed Ahmed Abdullah, a billionaire Saudi businessman and a jihadist himself, learns that Rapp has "killed" his son. Saeed beseeches Saudi Prince Muhammed bin Rashid for help. Rashid puts Saeed in contact with a former East German Stasi officer, Erich Abel, and Saeed puts a $20 million contract on Rapp's head.

Abel, through his contacts, approaches two assassins, a husband and wife team, Louis Gould and Claudia Morrell. For $10 million, they agree to kill Rapp. Claudia, who is pregnant, specifically asks Louis not to kill Rapp's wife, Anna, as she is also pregnant. Louis agrees, and both leave for America.

In Washington, Rapp is angered by the new Director of National Intelligence, Mark Ross, who authorized surveillance of Rapp's co-worker and friend, former Navy SEAL Scott Coleman. Ross sends the IRS to investigate Coleman, and requests Coleman's personnel file from the Navy. Ross has ambitions to the presidency and views his current position as a stepping stone to the White House. He has no respect for Rapp because of Rapp's reckless actions and, despite his contributions, wants to fire him.

Rapp decides to visit Ross to stop his investigation of Coleman, but he loses his famous temper when he finds a satellite photo of Coleman and discovers his friend was an active topic of interest. He physically holds the National Security adviser by the collar and slaps him with a folder holding Coleman's files. Rapp warns Ross not to interfere with the War on Terror. His words fall on deaf ears, though, and Ross decides that he must fire Rapp. Since Rapp has the president's full support, Ross decides he has to do it carefully.

Later, Rapp injures his left knee during a morning jog, and encounters the assassins Gould and Claudia, both dressed as bicyclists, examining his house. Rapp doesn't suspect anything and continues limping back towards his house. The next day, Rapp undergoes arthroscopic knee surgery. He and his wife Anna come home and as they settle down in their house, Louis detonates a bomb that kills Anna and throws a severely wounded Rapp into Chesapeake Bay where he is saved by a nearby boater. The CIA fakes Rapp's death and takes him to a safehouse to recuperate.

In a secret meeting with Irene Kennedy, Director of the CIA, President Hayes tells Kennedy that Rapp has his consent to kill any and all people involved in the murder of his wife.

Saudi Prince Rashid, who is visiting U.S., finds out from Director Ross that Rapp is in fact not dead. Ross carelessly informs Rashid of Rapp's safehouse location. Rashid orders his assistant, Saudi intelligence agent Nawaf Tayyib, to kill Rapp and Abel. Tayyib hires Latino gang leader Anibal Castillo to kill Rapp at the safehouse. Tayyib then goes hunting for the go-between Abel with two of his men, to sever the chain of contacts leading back to the prince.

Castillo and thirteen of his men attack the safehouse. Rapp kills all of Castillo's men, then wounds Castillo and brings him in to be questioned. Through different leads Rapp discovers Saeed was the one who put a bounty on his head.

Rapp goes to Afghanistan and gets Waheed out of prison, giving Waheed the impression that it is a hostage exchange. Rapp has Waheed unknowingly wear a vest full of explosives. As the released Waheed embraces his father in the street, Rapp pulls out a detonator and blows Saeed and Waheed and twelve of Saeed's bodyguards to pieces.

The CIA in the meantime has found out about Erich Abel's role in hiring the assassins and sends Rapp to Abel's office. There Rapp finds Tayyib torturing Abel's secretary for information on Abel's whereabouts. Rapp kills Tayyib's men, and he and Coleman capture Tayyib. A conscience-stricken Claudia is revealed to be the one who gave the CIA information on Abel.

Abel's secretary reveals to Rapp and Coleman that Abel is in Austria. Rapp flies there and captures Abel at his mountain retreat and tortures him for information. Abel reveals that Rashid was the mastermind behind the plot. He also gives information on the assassins. After hearing this, Rapp, who has become much more violent and vengeful after the killing of his wife, burns Abel alive inside the house.

Rapp travels to Spain where Rashid is staying. Coleman bribes Rashid's guards, who are British SAS sympathetic to Rapp, to let them in. Rapp completely covers Tayyib's body with explosives and drops him off in front of the mosque where Rashid is staying. Once Rashid's personal guards have Tayyib in custody, Rapp detonates the explosives, killing Tayyib and all the guards. Rapp finds Rashid and beats him severely before he puts a thermal grenade in his mouth and pulls the pin, melting Rashid's head.

In the epilogue, set nine months later, Rapp trails Louis and Claudia to Tahiti. Claudia has had her baby and Louis has retired. Rapp aims a gun at Louis's head, but once he hears that the baby was named after his deceased wife, he realizes she would not want her death avenged like this. He turns and leaves Louis, Claudia, and Anna unharmed. He then throws the gun into the ocean and continues walking down the boardwalk outside.

My Thoughts:

The reason this gets a 1star from me, and the reason for my “Oh no!” Currently Reading post a couple of weeks ago is because Rapp's wife is killed in this story. And she was pregnant.

I knew this event was going to happen at some point. The kind of character that Rapp is and his public outing of his job in earlier books made this even inevitable. But that doesn't mean I have to like it, or to like the fact that the author bowed to the inevitable instead of fighting against fate. I almost dnf'd the book right then and there when it happened. As it is, I'm pulling this series from my reading rotation and going to think about if I want to continue with it.

Flynn has really disappointed me with this. I was hoping he was going to take the harder writing road and make things work with Mitch as a married man since he'd chosen to make him a married man. It just felt like he threw up his hands and said “Oh, this is too hard. I'm going to do the easy thing”. Have her wounded, have her divorce Rapp, but don't kill her and their baby. It just felt wrong.

The rest of the story didn't really matter to me. I didn't really notice it. I was just seething. And that is why I'm going to wait until next year to make a decision about continuing the series. Emotional reactions are a fact of my life but I refuse to be controlled by them.

★☆☆☆☆ show less

I haven't read any of this series in quiet some time so was very happy to find that Mitch Rapp hadn't change one bit...didn't even get any older. He's one character that has the power to draw the reader in and keep you turning pages. It was an interesting plot with a very satisfactory ending and it seemed like a very quick read. There is a movie that was made supposedly from this book so having just finished the book, I watched it last night. There are so many major parts of the storyline that have either been changed or just left out that you would hardly recognize it. If you have read or plan to read this book and/or love this author...don't ruin it by watching the movie.

I'm not sure how I got so far behind in my Vince Flynn reading. The first one I read sealed my appreciation for Flynn and his character CIA assassin Mitch Rapp. But, this has to be the best one yet. There's a price on Mitch's head. A Saudi prince wants him dead and hires a guy who hires a German who hires another guy who hires the assassins but does not even know their names. The unraveling of all this is fascinating and makes a very compelling read.

An ultra-rich Arab fundamentalist puts a massive bounty to have Mitch killed, bringing out some heavy hitters to participate in his assassination. When he survives the attempt, he gets really pissed off, as you can imagine. The author's distaste for arab muslims is not even disguised, it's blatant. I'm always amazed at the closeness of the national players--in this case, the CIA director has the assassin over to recover after his house is bombed. Entertaining, nontheless.