Where Mitch Rapp Goes Roguish

Enemy of the State by Kyle Mills
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

(My gut says 4.5 stars. Goodreads makes you choose. It costs nothing, so...)

This is a very good thriller. I am not, generally, a fan of thrillers, but this is the second book in the series that I have read so far--completely out of order--and I really enjoyed both. The action is literally almost nonstop, and it just keeps rolling. But I've read other thrillers with similar levels of action that didn't work at all for me. It isn't enough just to have one fight after another, one confrontation after another. I'm not sure what's the secret ingredient; I think the author (Kyle Mills in this case) makes the reader connect with the MC better than some other authors do.

I'm not quite sure. I think that's it.

Mitch Rapp is very good character and a lot of fun to watch. I know some people don't like protagonists like him, but I do--guys who are not superheroes, but are still very, very capable, performing at a level beyond what you think a real person can achieve. Some people think that's cheating or something. I don't. Is Sherlock too smart, too "overpowered," to be a good MC? Obviously not. Is John Wick too efficient, too good a shot? Doesn't seem to be the consensus. In modern TV, there's Morgan Gillory on High Potential, a woman who knows so much more than you think is possible--but that's part of what makes her such a cool character. (She's also kinda dysfunctional, if loving, so that makes her really fun.) Anyway, Mitch Rapp is like that. He's really good at his job--a great shot, very athletic, super poised, filled with ideas. He's not made of iron, though; he has limits, and often gets pretty badly injured. He's not Superman, but he is, more or less, Jason Bourne.

As always, he goes up against terrorists and other global threats. In this case, he's exposing and terminating the secret alliance between high-ranking Saudis and ISIS. He can't do that officially as a CIA agent, so he's forced to "retire" and go rogue (wink wink). It works. It's fun. As far as I can tell, the geopolitics are pretty accurate. (Where they aren't, I'm not the guy to notice.)

A key to the success of this character, IMO, is how he scrupulously avoids harming innocent people just doing their job. It's hard to support violence, even fictional violence on the page, and it requires the author to thread the needle--bad guys harming people are targets, but good guys or regular people must be protected. Real life isn't quite like that, unfortunately, but I don't think this series would work so well if Mitch Rapp wasn't so careful about protecting innocent people anywhere in the world.

In this essay....

Anyway, I liked it, and I've grabbed a couple more, still way out of order. It's always fun to find a new author to enjoy, especially in a genre that you (I) seldom read in.

Recommended.

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Where Mitch Rapp Gets Some Teeth Knocked Out

Order to Kill by Kyle Mills
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I liked this quite a bit, and didn't think I would. This is my first book in this series (this particular title being written by Kyle Mills, not the original author Vince Flynn), and I hoped it would be pretty good, maybe sorta fun. It was better than that. I seldom read thriller/bestseller-type novels, and haven't usually enjoyed them much, but this one I did.

I was leaning toward 4.5 stars, but why be a jerk? I liked it, and it cost like a dollar at the library book store, so the least I can do is bump it up to a full 5.

This is an action novel, and it starts right in from the beginning. There is a tiny lull a fraction of the way in, IMO, but after that the story just ramps up pretty much continuously until the conclusion. By the end, I was won over, unironically enjoying it, and I think I might like to go back to the beginning of this series and see if I like all of them. (I started with #15 just because that's the one I picked up when I was in a buying mood.) One of my preferences is having a character with intelligence or superior skills who uses those skills. If you're awesome, be awesome. That's what's fun to read. Sherlock has to be smarter than everyone else. John Wick doesn't miss. An Oscar Wilde character has to be witty. And Mitch Rapp has to be the most badass guy around.

(I hate the books where the character is supposed to be an amazing investigator but he or she dithers and screws up and makes no progress for 90% of the book before pulling it out at the end. That's a drag and a missed opportunity. I want to see them be awesome. I want to see Reacher beat up an obnoxious bully, and I want to watch Patrick Jane trick a suspect into revealing what they're trying their best to hide, and I want to watch President Jed Bartlet school someone who was trying to make him look bad, and I want to hear Mona Lisa Vito tell the prosecutor the exact ignition timing for a 1964 Bel Air with a 327. I love that. Be awesome.)

It definitely costs Mitch something, though. He's not superman. Mitch has to suffer a lot of pain and misery to do what needs to be done, which feels fair in a novel. His goals are something easy to root for, which is stopping some pretty bad terrorism, and his bad guys are generally pretty hateful, so it's easy to side with him. But suprisingly (for me, for this type of book) even the really bad guys can also have a bit of heart, and I think that works. It's largely black-and-white, but the bits of gray help, so that it feels like real life, just with very skilled people.

So--good character, exciting story, lots of action, and clear, sharp writing. It works.

I've usually overlooked this author (well, the original author) and series, because this isn't my usual fare, but I'm adding it to the list. I'll probably find lots more at the thrift shops....

Recommended. Good summer reading, anyway.

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