The Third Option

"The Third Option" is a really solid addition to the Mitch Rapp series. In this book, Rapp is set up in Germany during a planned assassination of a corrupt German businessman. Who's behind the trap? Is it his top supporter in the CIA, Irene Kennedy, or some other person or group? Author Vince Flynn slowly reveals more about each of his main characters, in this, the 4th book in the series as Rapp returns to the country to track down those that tried to kill him. The book is a real page-turner that's hard to put down.

Rancorous political infighting surrounds the selection of a successor to the dying head of the CIA just as Mitch Rapp, the agency's top operative, embarks on a dangerous mission to take out a well-known German industrialist believed to be supplying Middle East terrorists with highly sensitive equipment critical to constructing a nuclear bomb. When Rapp's ultimately successful mission is compromised from within, ailing CIA director Thomas Stansfield puts his imprimatur on the efforts of his chosen successor, Irene Kennedy, director of the agency's Counterterrorism Center, to identify the powerful interests both inside and outside the agency that wanted Rapp to fail.

The motive soon becomes clear; there are people who'll stop at nothing to show more remove Kennedy from the helm of the agency after Stansfield dies. One thing they didn't count on was Rapp's survival, and now he's a lethal weapon whose sights are fixed directly on the most powerful among them. This is a strong, swift thriller, a bit predictable (the senator in the black hat has dogs named Caesar and Brutus) but nonetheless involving. Author Vince Flynn sustains the dramatic tension from the opening paragraph to the last; in Mitch Rapp, he's got the makings of a promising series hero. show less

This is the third book of Vince Flynn that I have read, and it was no less enjoyable than the others. Mitch Rapp is his usual tough self, though there is one instance where sheer luck was what kept him alive. Overall it's an enjoyable story in the Mitch Rapp series.

Bad ass assassin Mitch Rapp at it again--this time he almost gets killed by our own government. He pulls off a hit in Germany and is betrayed in the process. It's a pretty quick read and lots gets glossed over, but that's OK--just like the creamy filling in the Oreo cookie. The girl friend and the quasi daughter don't play much of a role, nor does his sidekick, except in his mind. Plenty of bad guys abound. It's a plot with global impact -- our hero is successful and let's go on to the next book in the series.

I really enjoyed this series so far, and this book helps flesh out the characters in more detail and give them depth. It also leaves me hanging at the end and wanting to see what comes next.

This book wouldn't have had that zeal if not penned by Vince Flynn. Another thriller with politics as base and a somewhat cruel ending leaving me baffled and at the same time interested.

"The Third Option," published in 2000, is the third book in Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series and, while the book still holds up well as a political thriller, today's readers will almost certainly think about how much has happened in the decade following its publication. Mitch is in Germany on what he plans as his last counterterrorism mission: taking out a wealthy German industrialist before the man can supply Saddam Hussein's scientists with the material needed for Iraq to produce nuclear weapons to benefit those waging war on the West.

One more kill, and Vince plans to walk away from his old life and into the arms of the woman he plans to spend the rest of his life with - but, in Vince's business, things have a way of getting show more complicated. Vince Rapp is not used to failure but this time, despite his best efforts, the mission goes badly and he finds himself on the run in Europe, wondering who set-him up and why they did it. All he knows is that someone is going to pay the ultimate price for what they did to him - even if the order came from inside the Agency.

When he finally surfaces to confront his bosses in Washington D.C. about their knowledge of what happened in Germany, Rapp becomes convinced that CIA Director Stansfield and Irene Kennedy, Director of the Counterterrorism Center, are as much in the dark as he is. Director Stansfield, Rapp learns, is dying of cancer and Stansfield strongly believes that Irene Kennedy is the only choice to succeed him. However, some powerful government people disagree with Stansfield and they considered Rapp and his mission to be expendable if the ensuing embarrassment would keep Kennedy from the nomination.

"The Third Option" is a first rate thriller throughout but I was disappointed in its open-ended finish. It is obvious that the fourth book of the Mitch Rapp series picks up exactly where this third book ends - and that might have been more acceptable back in 2000 when there were only three books in the series. But now there are ten of them, and the earlier books can be difficult to find in libraries and bookstores, so it might be a while before I find out how book three's chief villain is finally brought to justice. Bummer.

Rated at: 4.0 show less