Transfer of Power

[Transfer of Power] by Vince Flynn
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

This is actually book 3 in the Mitch Rapp Series, but the first book published in this series. I have read the first two books (chronologically) and have to say I feel Vince Flynn had honed his art more by the time he wrote those ones. This was a very enjoyable read but was a tad longer than it needed to be and as a result I felt it lost a bit of tension. It did take me a while to get into it but was very enjoyable and compulsive once I had got into it. It is basically about a terrorist attack on the White House and the resulting drama that ensues. It did feel a touch dated as it was written prior to the toppling of Saddam Hussein but very topical other than that in it's show more subject matter. Would certainly recommend this series to others having now read 4 in the series. show less

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Title: Transfer of Power
Series: Mitch Rapp #1
Author: Vince Flynn
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 458
Words: 168K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia.com

Rapp is introduced while he is performing a covert operation in Iran and he discovers a possible terrorist attack planned for the nation's capital to happen in the near future. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Anna Reilly is starting her first day as a White House correspondent for NBC. It also show more happens to be the day where the terrorist, using a secret entrance, takes over the White House and holds it hostage. The president, who barely escaped the hostage situation, remains trapped in the unfinished bomb shelter. With the vice president using this opportunity as commander in chief to glorify his political career by being lenient towards the terrorist demands, Rapp must find a way to fight the terrorists from the inside of the White House. It is here where he saves Anna Reilly from being raped by one of the terrorists and their relationship, which will be seen throughout the later books, begins.

Several Navy SEALs sneak into the White House while Rapp eliminates the terrorists, and saves the hostages and the president. The leader of the terrorist group manages to escape the White House while detonating his strategically placed explosives. He is later found in South America only to be killed by Rapp

My Thoughts:

This was a thoroughly enjoyable macho man book without the macho-ness dragging along a boatload of jerkitis. I hate when testosterone turns to stupidity. That was my main issue with the Scott Harvath series (which I touched on in the Currently Reading & Quote post last week). I did go into this a bit gingerly because of that. Even 4 years later Harvath sticks in my mind as an icon of douchebaggery. Thankfully, Mitch Rapp doesn't seem to be that way. While he's not a smooth tongued political serpent, he doesn't go out of his way to be a jerk either.

I am a little concerned with the romance angle. Most Operators aren't the kind of people who can focus and do what needs to be done AND have a perfectly balanced family life. While I'm rooting for Rapp and Reilly to work out I'm not letting it become a big thing in my mind. That way if it doesn't work out or she dies or becomes a terrorist or WAS a terrorist the entire time, I won't be torn up about it.

I'm also currently reading the Delta Force novels by Dalton Fury and that has given me a lot of background into certain terms and processes used by teams like Delta, that while not necessary to completely understand here, certainly make for a fuller reading. In the final assault on the White House Flynn talks about small helicopters loaded up with 4 Delta members on the skids. It's a 2 sentence description that by itself you just kind of read over. But Dalton references the practice in much fuller detail in his books and so I was able to transpose the knowledge from that to this. Not a big thing but reading books like these are all about the experience and that made for a fuller experience. I'm happy about that.

One word of warning. There is a scene where Anna is going to be raped by one of the terrorists. She isn't because Rapp steps in. However, if reading about attempted rape is something that bothers you, you should be aware of that. I'm not a fan of reading about that situation and should it be used again I'll have to think hard about the series. But it made sense for the situation (ie, it wasn't thrown in as titillation), wasn't graphic and in the end, doesn't happen because a good man puts a stop to it.

The title refers to the Transfer of Power from an incapacitated President to the Vice President. Said VP is a real scumsucking politician being advised by an even worse scumsucking politician and they both get their just desserts by the end of the book. Too bad real life can't follow certain parts of this book.

I've got 17 more Mitch Rapp books to read by Flynn. Flynn died and another author stepped in at book 13 or so, so we'll see how the series goes. Sometimes a series is long because it is good and sometimes it is long because it is pablum for an undiscerning audience. I am pulling for the Good option here!

★★★★☆ show less

This is a very solid continuation of the Mitch Rapp series. In "Transfer of Power", terrorists take over the White House and threaten to blow it up along with dozens of hostages. As the president takes refuge in a secret White House bunker, the power of the presidency is transferred to the weak-minded, yet power-mad VP. A conflict of interests occur within our government as the leaders of the CIA and Joint Chiefs work to get the president to safety and the hostages freed. The VP, on the other hand, sees this crisis as an opportunity to truly ascend to the "throne" and actually works against the plan.

Rapp is called in to find a way to get the president to safety without the VP finding out about it (because he would surely nix the plan). show more As Rapp works his way through the White House catacombs (with the help of a retired employee who knows all the secret passages), the world holds its collective breath because a peaceful solution is all but lost.

Author Vince Flynn pens a tightly-woven story (a little wordy at times) that's filled with plenty of action and great characters. The terrorist Aziz is especially distasteful, but no more so than the VP's chief of staff who epitomizes greed, unethical behavior, and power madness.

Fans of the series will love this book. Those new to the series might want to read the first two stories for some background info on Rapp and his CIA counterparts, but it's not absolutely necessary to enjoy this novel. show less

I'm giving this 3 stars, only because I read the book in a day, so it obviously kept my attention. The book definitely had its moments of suspense and excitement, I'll say that, but I was expecting a bit more. The characters were a bit vacuous and more caricatured than real, it's like the book was written by an obvious Republican who wants nothing more than to demonise Democrats as morons and narcissists. That part was really transparent.

This book is for commando fans, commando wannabes and commandos who like to read about which weapon the character is wielding, and which helicopter is being utilised - if that's you, then this is perfect masturbatory material. The pages devoted to makes and models of the tools of terrorism and show more counter-terrorism I found to be unnecessary, but that's because it's not my thing. If it is, then read this book. I just want a bit more of the intelligent side of terrorism, putting aside the whole "we're right and you're wrong" simplicity of the plot (which these books tend to have), I wanted more. I might give the next in the series a read because I don't want to dismiss the books based on just one, especially when I did enjoy the book, but I was rather generous in my rating of 3 stars. Then again I may not get around to reading that next book of his and that wouldn't be sad for me - if I do, fine, if I don't, well then I've not lost anything in life. show less

"Transfer of Power," Vince Flynn's second novel, introduces Mitch Rapp, the CIA counterterrorist who has since been the main character in another nine Flynn thrillers. Those just discovering the Mitch Rapp series are likely to find the earliest novels in the series (this one was published in 1999) to be even more poignant than those who read them prior to the murders of September 11, 2001. New readers will also notice how Flynn's style has changed over the years as he, thankfully, lost most of his "Tom Clancy style" and streamlined his novels into even better thrillers.

The White House is under the control of a small band of Arab terrorists led by the notorious Rafique Aziz. Although President Robert Hayes makes it to the relative show more safety of his basement security bunker, he is, in effect, trapped inside the building along with at least 80 other hostages. The country can only watch in horror as Aziz executes a man and a woman on live television and promises to kill one additional hostage each hour until his demands are met by the United States government.

Rafique Aziz is no ordinary terrorist. He has specific goals in mind and he does not intend to blow himself up along with his hostages unless the U.S. military attempts to retake the White House by force. Aziz understands that most ordinary Americans, and some inside the government, have no stomach for witnessing the systematic slaughter of another 80 hostages, and he counts on the media to apply so much pressure on the government to negotiate that all of his demands will be met. And in the person of Vice President Sherman Baxter, now acting President, Aziz has just the man in place to make it all work out just as he planned it.

Sherman Baxter is the worst kind of politician, a weak-willed, almost cowardly man with an intense desire to be President of the United States. He wants to appear strong but he is afraid to make any kind of mistake because he realizes that his handling of the hostage standoff will very likely make or break his political career. Much to the disgust of the Pentagon, FBI and CIA, Baxter is more willing to listen to advice from his amoral chief-of-staff than he is to what his counterterrorist experts tell him. If the President and other hostages are to be rescued, it will have to happen without the knowledge or cooperation of the Vice President.

Vice President Baxter agrees to allow Mitch Rapp, an "off the books" CIA counterterrorism operative, to sneak into the White House but, when Rapp reports that the White House will have to be taken back by force, and soon, the Vice President refuses to give the order to do so. Rapp, along with a civilian volunteer and a female hostage he manages to snatch from her captors, negotiates his way through secret passages, tunnels and hidden rooms inside the White House gathering the intelligence needed by those planning the President's rescue.

"Transfer of Power" is a good political thriller and Vince Flynn successfully increases the reader's tension as the book draws nearer and nearer its exciting conclusion. The action does stall on occasion, however, because of the excessive amount of technical detail Flynn includes about weaponry and the like, detail that, though it may add authenticity to the storyline, will be meaningless (or even boring) to most readers. Despite this handicap, something the later Mitch Rapp books do not suffer as much from, "Transfer of Power" is a satisfying thriller that clearly displays the promise of a decade-younger Vince Flynn.

Rated at: 3.5 show less

As relations with the Middle East flair again, the White House is taken. The President is safe in his bunker but that's only temporary. Like his first book, Term Limits, Vince Flynn takes the foibles of polities and turns them into sniper weapons while tightly weaving a really good plot.

Excellent story about terrorists taking over the White House. Then, the various and multiple agencies try to help; but Ironman is the hero! There are actually several heros and some very nasty bad guys. Flynn writes well and the book is readable/listenable with exciting parts tinged with research that you might never know if you did not read this book. As others have stated, if you liked "24", you'll like this book.