Protect and Defend

The most succinct way for me to describe the Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series is this: if you like the TV show 24, you will love Mitch Rapp. Rapp works for the CIA, but in reality he is the United States's best weapon against terrorism. Like Jack Bauer, he has little patience for bureaucracy and indecision, and is willing to push the limits of laws and propriety to see that justice is done.

Protect and Defend is the eighth book in the series. The tenth book, Pursuit of Honor currently sits on the NYT bestseller list. (I haven't read that one yet.) I listened to #9, Extreme Measures, on CD; I had never heard of Flynn but saw it on the shelf at the library. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and now I have read or listened to 1-8 in the series in order. Each stands independently, but I enjoyed seeing the characters and relationships develop over the course of the series. Again, the similarities to 24 are striking. Any of these novels would make a great season of 24. In fact, imdb.com lists Vince Flynn as a consultant on a few episodes of 24. (I just discovered that it's also saying a movie version of Protect and Defend is in development!)

Protect and Defend finds Iran working secretly on a nuclear weapons program. An Israeli spy, who has been embedded for years at the facility, pulls off a brilliant piece of sabotage, completely destroying it. Of course, Iran blames the US and begins throwing around accusations. They even sink one of their own ships and try to pin it on the US to drum up international sympathy. Rapp's boss and close friend, CIA director Irene Kennedy, arranges a clandestine meeting in Iraq with her Iranian counterpart, hoping they can work out a means to defuse the situation. Unfortunately for Irene, too many people knew about the meeting, and they use it to set up her abduction. Rapp, not content to let diplomacy get her back, leads a rescue effort that. . . . Well, I don't want to give too much away!

Flynn pulls no punches--politically correct he is not! I know as much about real life in the CIA and international espionage as I do about fixing my daughter's hair--that is, nothing! But Flynn writes convicingly, with lots of realism and detail. I guess these books would not be considered great works literature, destined to be included in the next version of Harvard Classics, but Flynn tells a great story, keeping the reader up at night eagerly turning the pages and waiting impatiently for the next book to be published. Read and enjoy!