Extreme Measures: A Thriller (Mitch Rapp Novels)
by Vince Flynn
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Book Summary Information
Author: Vince FlynnEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-10-28
ISBN: 0060515163
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Atria Books
Book Reviews of Extreme Measures: A Thriller (Mitch Rapp Novels)
Book Review: Vince Flynn maintains his reputation as the top America-first thriller writer
Summary: 5 Stars
I freely admit to being a Vince Flynn fan. Since finishing his first Mitch Rapp novel, I have eagerly awaited the next and devoured it with undisguised glee.
Each has been an improvement upon the last as Flynn and Rapp gather the lay of the land. I have no idea if Flynn reads his fan mail or reviews like this one. I have no idea of where Flynn's very apparent patriotism for the United States of America and its Constitution stem from. No one needs to guess, however, where Flynn and Rapp's disdain for American poliitcians comes from: all you have to do is read or watch the non-adulatory media.
Hypocrisy? A left-wing Congressman goes on a virtually Saddam Hussein paid trip to Iraq and the mainstream media says nothing of the man's motivations when he criticizes the United States. The smallest error on the part of someone not of the left is trumpeted, distorted, exaggerated and lied about for days, weeks, even months and sometimes years. In some cases, of course, the left even manufactures the lies that disparage the United States.
It is against this endless din raised by the hate-America crowd that Flynn plays to with Mitch Rapp.
Mitch Rapp is simple and direct in his approach: any enemy of the United States and its Constitution deserves, in most cases, to die.
"Extreme Measures" is more nuanced than any of the previous Rapp novels. This may, in fact, disappoint some of Flynn's fans. For the first time, the prime focus is not Mitch Rapp and the constant flow of mayhem, death and destruction he leaves in his wake.
Instead the central character is Mike Nash, another CIA operative who is effective in his own way, but has qualities Rapp lacks. Like scruples, an obsession with following the written law, a wife and family, emotions about the pain he has inflicted, even erectile dysfunction.
Nash is useful to portray the follies of do-gooder left-wingers like Senator Barbara Lonsdsale, a vain, egotistical, self-seeking, self-serving left-wing partisan who believes the rights of terrorists (not that a Londsale would ever use such a judgmental word!)are far more important than the lives of murdered innocents.
In Barbara Lonsdale, draws his most penetrating indictment yet of the left-wing mentality that threatens the destruction of the United States. People like Lonsdale who believe that terrorism is merely a law enforcement problem - as if law enforcement has ever controlled criminal acts of any kind, much less the daily beheadings, bombings and other terrors inflicted around the world by certain religionists. You need only read the daily mainstream media to read the words of the Lonsdales people have foolishly put it office.
Mike Nash represents the mythical Everyman of government servants, particularly those we might wish populated the CIA and other intelligence, law enforcement and military agencies.
Poor Nash, wanting to do his best to protect the nation, recognizing that foolish politicians block him at every turn and seeing that there is such a thing as terrorism and that it must be stopped. But the Senator Lonsdales are the allies of the terrorists and the enemies the nation.
I may open myself up to criticism on this interpretation, but that is what I see Flynn as attempting with transferring prime focus to Mike Nash in this novel. I think the experiment failed because not enough of Flynn's fans will pick up on it - and those of us who do may not care for it.
I for one prefer the flat out Mitch Rapp, take no prisoners, mayhem.
That said, "Extreme Measures" is the best of the Mitch Rapp novels to date.
It opens in Afghanistan where two major terrorist leaders are being held. Senator Lonsdale and colleagues visited the Air Force Base where they are being detained and a ladder climbing Captain arranged for the Senators to meet the terrorists. Needless to say, the left-wing Senators promised the terrorists thst not a hair on their heads would be tussled. The terrorists, murderers of the innocent, have rights you see.
After dark, Mitch Rapp arrives on the scene and despite the terrorists recitations of the promises received from Senator Lonsdale, Mitch Rapp proceeds with his brand of interrogation. ACLU members will not approve.
Things go astray and shortly Congress is out for the scalps of the CIA, Irene Kennedy, its Director, and Mitch Rapp. While the politicians mouth their obscene nonsensities, terrorists are plotting on bringing a bit of their version of "law and order" to the United States, meaning of course that mass murder is being planned.
Rapp and Kennedy play second fiddle in this book to Nash and his domestic life. It works to a degree, but not very well.
Flynn builds the suspense as the terrorists make their way into the United States while Lonsdale and colleagues plot the destruction of not the terrorists, but those who fight against them The senior Senator from Illinois is neatly parodied in "Extreme Measures" which amused me greatly because my state is embarassed by his presence in Congress,
Rapp does the inconceivable: he promise to tell the whole truth to Lonsdale's Senate committee, while at the same time he and Nash are trying to stop a terrorist attack.
Everything comes together quickly as the terrorists make their presence known in the United States. Lonsdsale is unphased by the death and destruction the terrorists begin to unleash. Her focus is on the CIA, Director Kenendy, Nash and the perfidious Mitch Rapp who have dared to "violate" the "rights of the terrorists. Aiding Lonsdale are a motley assortmentt of political appointees, hacks and so-called journalists.
For a Mitch Rapp cheerleader, the ending is a bit of a let down. There's plenty of tension, violence, gore and rough justice, but some of the elements - I won't tell you which for fear of spoiling - didn't seem to fit well.
I'll leave it to the reader to decide if Flynn didn't go a bit too far in pushing Mitch Rapp to the sidelines in "Extreme Measures". I can see why he did and the points he makes are worth making, but I prefer the far less subtle personna of Mitch Rapp making the United State through his unbridled intellect and violence.
Given all of the above, Flynn remains the best All-American thriller writer out there and I really do wish we had dozens, if not thousands, of Mitch Rapps out there defending the United States.
Jerry
Summary of Extreme Measures: A Thriller (Mitch Rapp Novels)
In the newest devastatingly intense thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling phenomenon Vince Flynn, his deadly and charismatic hero Mitch Rapp wages a war against a new enemy with the help of a fellow soldier as dedicated and as lethal as they come.
Vince Flynn's thrillers, featuring counterterrorism operative Mitch Rapp, have dominated the imagination of readers everywhere. In them, Flynn has captured the secretive world of the fearless men and women, who, bound by duty, risk their lives in a covert war they must hide from even their own political leaders.
Now, Rapp and his protege, Mike Nash, may have met their match. The CIA has detected and intercepted two terrorist cells, but a third is feared to be on the loose. Led by a dangerous mastermind obsessed with becoming the leader of al-Qaeda, this determined and terrifying group is about to descend on America.
Rapp needs the best on this assignment, and Nash, who has served his government honorably for sixteen years first as an officer in the Marine Corps and then as an operative in an elite counterterrorism team run by Rapp is his choice. Together, they have made careers out of meeting violence with extreme violence and have never wavered in the fight against the jihadists and their culture of death. Both have fought the war on terrorism in secret without accolades or acknowledgment of their personal sacrifices. Both have been forced to lie to virtually every single person they care about, and both have soldiered on with the knowledge that their hard work and lethal tactics have saved thousands of lives.
But the political winds have changed in America, and certain leaders on Capitol Hill are pushing to have men like Rapp and Nash put back on a short leash. And then one spring afternoon in Washington, DC, everything changes.
Using his insider knowledge of intelligence agencies and the military, Flynn once again delivers an all-too-real portrayal of a war that is that is waged every day by a handful of brave, devoted souls. Smart, fast-paced, and jaw-droppingly realistic, Extreme Measures is the political thriller of our time.
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