Thursday 21 January 2010

A book that should've been on my list of ones to look out for

So, I went to the library again on Tuesday. I happened to notice a book on the new books shelf: Pursuit of Honour, by Vince Flynn. Having now read it, I've come to the conclusion that I was a bit of a fool to decide I didn't want to read the one before it in the series on the basis that it didn't really look like it would be about Mitch Rapp and that it didn't sound that interesting. This one was certainly fascinating, and Mike Nash who I understand was the main character in the last one was just as interesting as Mitch Rapp. Wow. What a book. I'm so glad I noticed it on the shelf, and I feel rather stupid for also having stopped my collection of these books (admittedly, they are hard to find second hand, and no wonder as they're the sort you could easily read several times over).

Completely engaging political thriller, fantastic action, and a hero you have to love for all his flaws and engaging humanity. Tough, dangerous, slightly bitter, Mitch Rapp is one of the best thriller heroes I've come across. I think the best way of describing these books would be: like Alaistar MacLean ones, only with more intriguing and three dimensional characters and a personal side, with issues that are up to date now, rather than being thirty odd years out of date. Not that there's anything wrong with the issues being thirty years out of date--they weren't at the time. But I have to say, in terms of characterization and thrills, Vince Flynn has the edge. Particularly in this book. I was captivated from the moment I started it. Which had unfortunate consequences on the fact that I did actually need to get some work done and so should now be doing it instead of blogging about the book. But still. I'm going to have to go on a major hunt to find the rest of tehm now to re-read...

Highly recommended. I suspect that there'll be more reviews of Vince Flynn books to come shortly--can't wait to get my hands on Extreme Measures which was the one before this that I missed. Love them.

1 comment:

Professor Ellis D Trails said...

If I were you I would start with Term Limits - The First book by Flynn and does not have Mitch Rapp and roll through the series one by one. Many of the characters introduced in Term Limits appear in future books. Mitch Rapp first appears in the second book - Transfer of Power. There are a total of 11 books now.