Executive Power

This is the first Vince Flynn novel I've read and will be the last. The book is full of cliches and stereotypes pandering to an American audience looking for a hero who sees every issue as black and white, has all the answers and is not afraid to act. Mitch Rapp is bigger than life just how Americans luv'em. He has been recently outed as a CIA operative and the whole world knows him as the ultimate terrorist hunter. Everyone he meets is in fearful awe of him. Unlike the terrorists he slays he is a killer with a conscience "Rapp had killed many times and could honestly say he never enjoyed it, or at the very least he'd never relished it. Yes, there'd been times where he'd felt just satisfaction in killing someone who deserved it, but show more that was about the extent of it." Oh and he is a great family man and American patriot. The plot was very good but handled it in a very simplistic manner. The Arabs; Saudi's, Iraqi's and Palestinian's are all bad guys. France and the Phillipines are unreliable allies. Terrorists flee to Canada after committing their attacks in the USA. Israel's tough stance towards the Arabs and specifically the Palestinians is supported by historical events. The events are all true; but, Flynn does not provide any historical events as to why the Arabs and the Palestinians hate Israel and Jews in general. He only states that there is an element in the Arab world which is totally bent on destoying the state of Israel. Flynn makes all the politicians look like weak kneed sycophants only trying to get the president re-elected. Mitch Rapp basically does as he pleases. He doesn't care who he insults, what rules or protocols he bypasses or what havoc he creates because everything he does is for the good of America. All Americans should be thankful that Mitch Rapp is ready and willing to do the dirty jobs that other Americans, non-military, are unwillingly or to afraid to do. Can't dispute his take on realpolitick but again it is pretty superficial. The timeline was unreal. Good ol'Mitch went from killing Philipine terrorists and saving an American family in a matter of 2 days to stopping a potential major middle eastern conflict and/or the creation of a Palestinian state 3 days later. Amazing maybe Flynn's next book could have Mitch actually solve the Mideast conflict, but give him a week. As I said earlier the plot was good and it kept me going if only to see how the book ended. Characters were all stereotypes. The book depicts how we all wish we could deal with terrorists and those who support them but in the real world and realpolitick it just can't be so. show less

This is my first Vince Flynn book, and I can honestly say really enjoyed it. It was a good book to introduce me to the author. He has a good style of writing, and his story is well-put together and coherent. Not all authors can manage to pull off a story that spans two different worldwide locations, but Flynn pulled it off well with a convincing storyline of Rapp working on a mission to rescue some American hostages. I also think the tension between him and his new wife, over the secrecy of his job, was handled very well. 4.5/5 stars.

"Sometimes, I'm not sure why I keep reading these books. It's basically a guy's version of a romance novel. Spies! Bad guys! Action! Cheesy dialog! It's a literary version of the television show 24." Not my words, but capture my thoughts, exactly. Underlying all is Mitch's marriage to a journalist--that goes pretty well but I can see the future...it won't at some time. There are three books in one, here--all don't necessarily come together. It's red, white and blue cliche. But a fun read.

I gave four stars to the five previous Mitch Rapp books. The reason this got three stars was because I was not sure what the author was trying to do with the shooting of Mitch Rapp and how his wife and boss reacted to it. I almost wonder if it was comedy. I would start to smirk, kind of chuckle, but then it turned into deal-breaking type material for the relationships. It didn't work for me. Not a bad book, and will read the next one after my library re-opens. COVID 19.
4/1/2020; 1,740 members; 3.99 average rating

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Title: Executive Power
Series: Mitch Rapp #4
Author: Vince Flynn
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 412
Words: 134K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia & Me

CIA field agent Mitch Rapp's cover has been blown following his last assignment, preventing Saddam Hussein from obtaining nuclear weapons. Rapp receives public acknowledgment by the president in response to the latest Congressional leak to the media. Though the praise is of the highest quality, show more the President might as well have placed a bulls-eye on Rapp's chest and that of his loved ones by singling him out as the most important person in the fight against terrorism. The spotlight makes the former covert operator an ideal international target for eradication by terrorists as the symbol he has become.

Rapp moves from CIA operative duties to that of a counter-terrorism bureaucrat. As special advisor on counter-terrorism to CIA director Dr. Irene Kennedy, Rapp uncomfortably sits in an office. However, everything changes when radical Islamic terrorists ambush Navy SEALs on a top-secret rescue mission in the Philippines. The leak had to be in either the State Department or the Philippine diplomatic corps, but nobody knows for sure. However, worse yet is that someone is trying to cause a Jihad on a scale never before seen and that unknown invisible individual is close to achieving the goal with only a too visible Rapp in the way.

Rapp leads a team to avenge that loss by defeating the Philippine terrorist network that killed two SEAL team members and rescuing the American hostages. In order to successfully accomplish this mission he must keep its existence from the turncoats who betrayed those who went before him. The coincidental plot-line has forces plotting to upset the tenuous balance in the Middle East's geopolitical situation. A flamboyant Saudi Prince, who is banished from the Kingdom, elicits the help of a Palestinian assassin to murder the leaders of terrorist cells as well as Saudi and Palestinian Ambassadors in the hopes of dissolving US support for Israel and the eventual establishment of an official Palestinian state.

The assassin completes his tasks and has Israel, the US and the UN exactly where he wants them. Unfortunately for him, Rapp finds out who he is, what he has done and leaks some of the assassins talks with Israel to the Saudi Prince, who kills the assassin. Rapp then in turn kills the prince as an object lesson to other Saudi Royals to stay out of the “terrorism as a hobby” business.

My Thoughts:

This was another enjoyable read but the dual storylines never connected and so it almost felt like two different books mashed into one. I have to admit, I wish the author had simply concentrated on one or the other and expanded it to fill the book.

The palestinian assassin storyline could have been fantastic and I was waiting for him and Rapp to duke it out assassino a assassino style. So it was a letdown the way things went. The biggest thing is that Rapp's cover is permanently blown and so his days of secret assassinations are pretty much done. And yet there are a lot more books to go so I'm left wondering how the author is going to keep the interest going. I guess I'll just have to keep reading and find out, hahahahaa.

The author handles Rapp being recently married very well. I was wondering how he was going to deal with the relational side of things and he doesn't shy away from it. Rapp and his wife Anna have a huge blowout about him going back into the field, against orders no less and the fact that he'd been wounded made it even worse. Thankfully, Rapp isn't a pigheaded jerk and he cares about his wife and her feelings and realizes that he is going to have to change some things if he wants their marriage to work. It was so refreshing and encouraging to see a character in a book place the needs of their marriage before their own personal desires or using “work” as an excuse. We will have to see how this part of the overall storyline works out in future books because it can not turn into a cycle of Mitch Rapp doing what he wants, his wife blowing up at him, making up and then promising to do better.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how this series is progressing. It is book 4 and I have no real complaints. The author hasn't pulled any boneheaded moves but simply tells a good action/adventure story. Keeping my fingers crossed he can keep that track record.

★★★✬☆ show less

Perhaps the fact that I am a proud owner of a Y-chromosome is why Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series appeals to me, but I feel that it is more than the high-powered action and espionage that infuses this author’s stories that creates such a satisfying and attracting read.

Executive Power, the fifth book in Vince Flynn’s series is by no means an exception to his outstanding repertoire of literature. This book, unlike some non-stop fighting, Rambo-like story, is instead a remarkably realistic and view of modern politics. Flynn has created the right mix of espionage, combat, and political intrigue that is rife with action and never lets up. Despite what many may think before reading this book, the political side is just as interesting show more if not more so at times than the undercover black ops. Executive Power kept me interested the whole way with a perfect mix of elements that is difficult to explain, to fully understand these books they must be read.

The characters in this book are dynamic and at times assume a nearly real existence in my mind. Unlike many other action books the characters are many sided with realistic emotions and thoughts. For Example, the star of the show, Mitch Rapp, is simultaneously an unknown assassin in the unofficial employ of the government, a loving husband, and much more. It is impossible to believe that all sides of the character is really know, because in each situation a new side of their personality is revealed, but they are not such incredible people as to be judged unrealistic. Vince Flynn did an admirable job creating his characters in such a way that they are realistic and interesting, a task that is seemingly impossible, at least in my own attempts at fictional stories. The emotions, reactions, thought processes, every aspect of these characters is steeped in realism and for this reason in itself Vince Flynn’s Executive Power would be at a great loss with the one-sided heroes and villains often found in other books. Personally I think this book has an edge on Tom Clancy simply because of the characters and is worth trying even if the reader has minimal interest in war related books. Perhaps I have overstated this point, but personally after having read the book I don’t feel I can stress it enough.

As I have already stated many times so far, one of the main reasons why this book is so downright amazing is because of how realistic it is. The plots that occur in Flynn’s thrillers could easily be rendered a reality. Due to the nature of some of these activities this is a bone-chilling revelation but imbues the book with an even greater attraction to the reader. Anything from terrorist attacks to political debates and elections all show their true faces in Executive Power and are essential to this books success.
Vince Flynn is an absolutely incredible writer. His realistic books are packed with high-concept political intrigue and espionage as well as dynamic characters and detailed, complex plots. Flynn’s books are like none other and I enjoyed reading Executive Power immensely. It is now one of my personal favorites and I recommend it to anyone. show less

Description: Packed with likable characters and undergirded by an in-depth understanding of the tangled politics of the 21st-century Middle East, Flynn's latest spy thriller (after the bestselling Separation of Power) can rightly be termed a post-September 11 espionage novel. Mitch Rapp is the CIA's number one a ssassin, recently lauded by the president as "the single most important person in America's fight against terrorism." Recently married to a high-profi le anchorwoman and given a desk job, Mitch is having a hard time settling into the brain center of the CIA and giving up the gritty end of operations. He can't seem to resist seeking hands-on involvement in his latest assignment: unraveling a murky plot to create a Palestinian show more state. A mysterious operative, "David," plans to assassinate the heads of the major terrorist groups in the region and pin the deaths on Israel, simultaneously creating sympathy for the Palestinian cause while striking a fatal blow against terrorism, which he despises. Though the novel never strays far from the many conventions of the genre-a cadre of international agents, pedantic bureaucrats, spoiled sheikhs, and a U.S. president and military unfailingly portrayed as noble- Flynn spins an entertaining narrative. Though the book deals with an Iraq still firmly under Saddam's control, it should appeal to Americans' burgeoning awareness of-and interest in-the complex affairs of the Middle East. Perhaps the book's greatest accomplishment is its oblique questioning of the politics of vengeance. "The only way to make them stop is to hit them harder than they hit us," says the leader of Israel's intelligence agency. show less