Publication Date: August 2003 | Series: Murder, She Wrote: Jessica Fletcher Mysteries
CIA director Thomas Stansfield is dead -- and many individuals in the nation's capital are pleased to hear. However, their happiness is short-lived because Stansfield's successor -- his protégé Dr. Irene Kennedy -- plans on pursuing Stansfield's goals -- a fact Stansfield's fiercest enemies refuse to accept.
Israel has discovered that Saddam Hussein is close to entering the nuclear arms race -- and they've vowed to stop the Iraqi madman before he can get his hands on the ultimate weapon. With the Middle East teetering on the precipice of chaos and devastation, the president of the United States is forced to act.
The commander in chief's secret weapon? None other than the CIA's top counterterroism operative, Mitch Rapp. With the haunting specter of World War III looming, Rapp races against time and impossible odds -- navigating the deadly alleys of Baghdad, tearing through the corruption-riddled streets of Washing ton, D.C., and taking drastic measures against anyone who gets in his way.
With action that sizzles and true-to-life insider detail, Separation of Power showcases New York Times bestselling author Vince Flynn at his shell-shocking best.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
A changing of the guard at the CIA attracts some corrupt politicos with eyes on the White House at the start of this sharply plotted thriller, a step up for popular writer Flynn (The Third Option, etc.). Unfortunately for the bad guys, upright CIA agent Dr. Irene Kennedy is tapped to replace her dead boss, foiling their illicit fund-raising plans. Corrupt politico number one, Sen. Hank Clark, enlists Irene's envious second to discredit her and the president. Clark and his cronies are also eager to deal with CIA special ops assassin Mitch Rapp, who's stuck on desk duty after nearly losing his life on a previous assignment and seems ripe to be taken out. Mitch accompanies his girlfriend, White House reporter Anna Rielly, to Italy, where he meets up with his former lover, freelance assassin Donatella Rahn. When Rahn is shot, Mitch uncovers a plot linked to the men behind the threats to Irene and the CIA. Meanwhile, reports surface that Saddam Hussein has acquired nuclear weapon components from North Koreans, who are assembling them in a factory buried beneath a Baghdad hospital. This calls for a gutsy mission, one that entails stopping Saddam while avoiding the PR nightmare that bombing a hospital would cause. Irene pulls Mitch into the plans to deal with Baghdad while she grapples with Congress. Flynn knows his politicians and pits his characters against impossible odds with nonstop action and suspense thus distracting fans from all the clich‚s and mediocre prose and a final fillip will keep them guessing as to Mitch's future in the series. (Oct. 9)Forecast: The legions of readers who landed The Third Option on the New York Times bestseller list will be back for more. They'll also have a chance to catch Flynn during his eight-city author tour.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Mitch Rapp, topnotch CIA counterterrorism operative (e.g., The Third Option), has a near-impossible task: secure peace in the Middle East even as the CIA implodes. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
I would like to apologize for some of the confusion that occurred for those of you who read Kill Shot in the digital format. We thought readers would enjoy being able to read excerpts from all of my backlist, but as it turns out, we've heard otherwise from many of you.
All of this free material was counted as part of the book and led readers to believe they still have 29% of the book left to read when in fact Kill Shot has just ended. Managing your expectations is something I take very seriously and I understand your frustration. If I was on a plane and I thought I was only two thirds of the way through a book and it abruptly ended I would be very disappointed.
We heard you and we fixed this. We have taken out the free sample chapters and should have this problem rectified. I appreciate your patience on the matter and I apologize for any disappointment or frustration that it has caused.
Sincerely, Vince Flynn
The fifth of seven children, Vince Flynn was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1966. He graduated from the St. Thomas Academy in 1984, and the University of St. Thomas with a degree in economics in 1988.
After college he went to work for Kraft General Foods where he was an account and sales marketing specialist.
In 1990 he left Kraft to accept an aviation candidate slot with the United States Marine Corps. One week before leaving for Officers Candidate School, he was medically disqualified from the Marine Aviation Program, due to several concussions and convulsive seizures he suffered growing up. While trying to obtain a medical waiver for his condition, he started thinking about writing a book. This was a very unusual choice for Flynn since he had been diagnosed with dyslexia in grade school and had struggled with reading and writing all his life.
Having been stymied by the Marine Corps, Flynn returned to the nine-to-five grind and took a job with United Properties, a commercial real estate company in the Twin Cities. During his spare time he worked on an idea he had for a book. After two years with United Properties he decided to take a big gamble. He quit his job, moved to Colorado, and began working full time on what would eventually become Term Limits.
Like many struggling artists before him, he bartended at night and wrote during the day. Five years and more than sixty rejection letters later he took the unusual step of self-publishing his first novel. The book went to number one in the Twin Cities, and within a week had a new agent and two-book deal with Pocket Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint.
Term Limits hit the New York Times bestseller list in paperback and started a trend for all of Flynn's novels. Since then, his books have become perennial bestsellers in both paperback and hardcover, and he has become known for his research and prescient warnings about the rise of Islamic Radical Fundamentalism and terrorism. Read by current and former presidents, foreign heads of state, and intelligence professionals around the world, Flynn's novels are taken so seriously one high-ranking CIA official told his people, "I want you to read Flynn's books and start thinking about how we can more effectively wage this war on terror."
October 2007 marked another milestone in Flynn's career when his ninth political thriller, Protect and Defend, became a #1 New York Times bestseller. A few months later, CBS Films optioned the rights for Flynn's Mitch Rapp character with the intention of creating a character-based, action-thriller movie franchise. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who previously launched the Harry Potter and Matrix films as head of production at Warner Bros., and Nick Wechsler (We Own the Night, Reservation Road) will produce the films.
Flynn's 10th hardcover, Extreme Measures, was published in October 2008. It was also a #1 New York Times bestseller. His most recent novel, Kill Shot, was published in Fenbruary 2012.
The Mitch Rapp story begins with American Assassin, followed by Kill Shot Transfer of Power, The Third Option, Separation of Power, Executive Power, Memorial Day, Consent to Kill, Act of Treason, Protect and Defend, Extreme Measures and Pursuit of Honor.
Influences: Ernest Hemingway, Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, J.R.R. Tolkien, Gore Vidal, and John Irving. Flynn lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and three children.
I can't wait for the next book! To appreciate this book as much as posible it is best to have read Transfer of Power and The Third Choice which very nicely keep us up to date with the major characters in the story.
I have even gone back and bought Term Limits which was his first book. I don't know if it is essential to go there, but this effort has been criticized by some and I am enough of a fan of the author and an aspiring writer that I would like to see for myself how the first one went.
Enough of that. This book is so good that I realy just want to say that and hope it will be enough to interest you to buy it. Nah! All the good people and some of the bad from earlier books ae moving forward with their lives. Mitch Rapp, who is certainly a very important part of Transfer of Power only continues to grow in importance as the books unfold and in this book he is at his zentih. I continue to pray that we have a Mitch Rapp in the employ of the CIA. We all should, but I suspect that the last eight to ten years have cost us dearly in that regard.
Suffice it to say that Flynn lays out all of the trip wires that are there in this day and age and very deftly manuvers around them. If you are into red, white and blue these days, you will love this book. If you are one who has reservations about what we are doing in response to 9/11, you will find instruction in this novel. If you are sitting in Bagdahd, working on weapons of mass destruction, you will pray this is just a figment of the authors imagination. In any event, this book is so worth reading that I can not recommend it enough.
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Vince Flynn's fourth political thriller continues with the same characters introduced in his second book, Transfer of Power, and one or two from his thrilling debut, Term Limits. Like in the previous two novels, the Iron Man, Mitch Rapp, is back to destroy the enemies of the United States and find out who attempted to kill him in book three, The Third Option. Separation of Power is a cut above its predecessor due to a number of intriguing subplots concerning Rapp's attempt to catch his attempted murderer; the confirmation battle of Dr. Irene Kennedy to helm the CIA; who wants to kill Rapp's former lover/secret agent; Rapp's relationship with Anna Rielly; and a few more that Flynn puts in to keep the pot boiling. Despite the fact that this novel is part of a series (and most novels like these lose some character development in the process), Flynn has written yet another superb political/military thriller. If he can avoid writing thousand page behemoths like Tom Clancy, Flynn will no doubt be King of the Technothriller. I am eagerly awaiting his fifth pageturner.
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One might say that Vince Flynn has been hanging around with Michael Crichton in the way this Separation of Power mirrors so much that is going on in today's world. (This reference, of course, is meant to be a reminder of how close Crichton was to predicting the issues presented in his Airframe novel.)
I began reading Flynn's fourth novel just after the events of 9/11 happened. The lines which could be drawn to the 9/11 tragedy are incredible. Needless to say, I could not put down the book until the last page was finally read.
The beginning totally captures your attention, but I do recommend reading Third Option before starting Separation of Power, due to a great deal of the storyline originated in the third book.
There is really not a middle to this book, there is a great setup for a great ending. You find yourself going to four popular sections of the globe before the book finally ends. The ending could not have been better! Flynn does it again!!!
If you are new to Flynn, read Third Option, then Separation of Power. At that point, go back and read Term Limits and Transfer of Power.
Flynn is one of my favorites and I have been a fan since I first read the Term Limits insert in a USA Today I received while traveling a few years ago.
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