Into the Fire

For Vince Flynn fans, The Survivor couldn't get here soon enough – but then there was also that underlying sense of dread. No one could be Vince Flynn. Would Mitch be Mitch? Irene, Irene? Stan Hurley? You get the idea. So it is with both some reservation and glee that I admit Kyle Mills took on a huge task in contracting to continue Vince's epic tales of Mitch Rapp, counterterrorism, the CIA, and killing bad guys, and, while not actually duplicating Vince's writing and voice, Kyle Mills came very close. Close enough to make the interminable wait for the next installment seem way too long – just like it did when Vince would release his latest Mitch Rapp novel. 

The Survivor picks up where Vince's final book The Last Man left off. A rogue operative Joe Rickman, who Director Irene Kennedy describes as brilliant but troubled, is trying to destroy the CIA and Irene Kennedy from the grave. And Pakistan's new ISI director wants the information Rickman is dispatching from an encrypted email service via a law firm in Switzerland and will send his assistant anywhere he must to get it.

The storyline, complex, historical, loaded with information, reminds me of a few of Vince's 14 novels where it was necessary to do fill-in facts to accentuate why certain actions were required. Other characters, good and evil, are allowed to develop their misguided plans for the reader's purview. Although this is a method Vince used and Kyle does it well, the obvious strength and attraction in these thrillers is Mitch Rapp so when the story veers away from him for any length of time, occasionally it drags. Not badly and not for long.

Irene and Mitch must put significant pressure on their world-class hacker Marcus Dumond to find how, who, and from where the information is surfacing. The Pakistani's gained a head start under the new direction of the ISI, a man who's fooled most everyone, including the president of Pakistan, by his deferential act, but he's a ruthless killer who wants to bring down America and rule the world with Sharia Law.

Readers will mourn the loss of a favorite character, will follow Mitch and his team (Scott Coleman and friends) to Switzerland, Rome, Russia, and Pakistan in between brief stops at Langley. The pressure to obtain this list Rickman is exposing name by name, forces difficult operations with less planning than is satisfactory to both Rapp and Irene.

In The Survivor Mitch does some serious soul-searching, trying to evaluate his life at 44. He's tired of living in the past, in that sense of mourning, believing he can't revive the kind of life he experienced with his deceased wife Anna but wanting to somehow move forward. To exactly where he's unsure. He always has an exit strategy, but he's not even sure of it. The way Kyle captures Rapp's mental state rings true.

In The Survivor he's still the same Mitch Rapp, a little older, a little more impatient when patience was never his strong suit anyway. There's action, a familiar hated nemesis, despicable politicians, always a new enemy, and a lot of globetrotting.

Vince Flynn created the larger than life character of Mitch Rapp and put him in epic circumstances with authentic writing. No one did it better than Vince. He is missed.

Kyle Mills took on the gargantuan challenge and survived it! He captured the Rapp we've loved and continued the amazing portrait of Irene Kennedy. He's to be commended for his work on The Survivor. I look forward to his next effort to continue the legacy of Vince Flynn and to share in his grand telling of the CIA's deadliest operative Mitch Rapp.

****This is a rerun, the prelude to the coming review of Order to Kill****

Father, please continue to bless the writing of Kyle Mills, and please give Vince a hug from all of us who are devoted to the work he did. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.