Customer Reviews

Third Option

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This is my third Flynn Book in as many weeks and it lacks the intensity of the first two. I sensed Flynn pushed the manuscript through a little to fast and was not able to offer the quality equal to his first two books. My advice would be to wait for the paperback. Warning: If you insist on reading The Third Option, I would strongly suggest that you read Term Limits and Transfer of Power first. Reading both beforehand will offer greater insight into those who Mitch Rapp trusts and why and frankly they're both great books. Otherwise some of the pieces will not fit.

THE THIRD OPTION by Vince Flynn is the type of thriller that fans of the espionage/political intrigue genre are always on the lookout for. The novel deals with Mitch Rapp who is a member of the CIA's highly secret Orion Team. He's their top assassin. When the first option of diplomacy and the second option of military force fail, the United States turns to its third option of covert action as a way of dealing with terrorist's attacks. It is our last option of fighting back, and it usually involves assassination. Mitch Rapp is on the verge of resigning from the CIA. He has met the woman of his dreams and wants to live a normal life. He decides, however, to take one last assignment. His job will be to go into Germany as part of a team and assassinate a German industrialist who has been selling materials for building a nuclear device to one of our country's leading enemies. What Rapp isn't aware of is that he's to be killed after he completes his mission. When the German police find his body next to that of the industrialist, the CIA will be publicly blamed, thus ending the career of Irene Kennedy, head of the department that runs the Orion Team and who is slated to take over as Director of the CIA. Rapp isn't an easy man to eliminate. The people assigned to take him out fail in their attempt. Returning to the United States by covert means, Rapp is determined to track down the individuals who tried to kill him and to extract the names of those in the U.S. Government who authorized the hit. Rapp doesn't care how high up the list of names goes; if he has his way, he will kill every last one of the people involved in this conspiracy. THE THIRD OPTION has the ring of authenticity about it that strongly reminded me of the earlier novels of Tom Clancy. Its author has a real working knowledge of the Central Intelligence Agency and is able to take the reader deep behind the scenes of intelligence gathering and covert assassination, not to mention the dynamics that come into play as the Agency struggles to survive the manipulations of Congress and the President of the United States. Though the plot of this novel is complex in nature, there is certainly enough action to keep us diehard fans of the "spy" genre glued to our seats as we try to desperately guess the ending. I will say this about the final outcome; as in real life, the bad guys don't always get what's coming to them. I have to also say that I really enjoyed the character of Mitch Rapp. Here is a man with a strict code of honor who isn't afraid to kill in order to protect himself or his loved ones. This is certainly the type of guy you want as a friend and not as an enemy. I hope the author will continue to write future novels with Mitch Rapp in them. He's got a great character here. Anyway, if you want to enter the New Year with some fun reading, pick up a copy of THE THIRD OPTION, then check out the first two novels by Vince Flynn, TERM LIMITS & TRANSFER OF POWER.

Mr Flynn's third outing was a good one. I enjoyed this book a great deal, particularly because he was a bit less preachy in this one than he was in his first.

The main character, Mitch Rapp, is rather enigmatic, but then looking at what he does for a living, that would be appropriate. The characters were good, the scenery was described well, and this time Mr Flynn didn't make everyone that was a non-conservative, a cross between the devil and a child molester.

Mr Flynn does a good job with the local geography as well. Many authors tend to make things up as they go along when describing Washington, DC (Clancy comes to mind here), but Flynn gets it all down just right. From George Washington University Hospital (where my daughter was born) and campus, to the State Department and Naval Bureau of Medicine on 23rd street that I drive past every morning and afternoon

This isn't high art, and it isn't literature, but if you are looking for a fast paced novel about political intrigue, assassins, and tradecraft this is your book.

As a personal aside, I think Mitch Rapp should ditch that Beretta he uses and get something a bit more practical for his line of work.

THE THIRD OPTION is the dark, dangerous world of covert operations where governments use agents to kill their enemies without sanctioning their activities. Mitch Rapp, a member of the Orion Team, has abided by the rules of the game for a ecade. Now that he is in love, Mitch wants to resign after years as a atriotic universal soldier.

His last assignment calls for him to assassinate a German industrialist helping Hussein rebuild the Iraqi nuclear arsenal. After completing the mission, one of his peers tries to eliminate Mitch, but fails to kill the operative. Alone and hunted, Mitch manages to return to the States to attempt to uncover the identity of the individual paying the assassination bills. When his enemy grabs his beloved girlfriend, Mitch vows to kill everyone who might be involved even if it means raiding the Halls of Congress and the White House.

Vince Flynn, author of TERM LIMITS and TRANSFER OF POWER, writes another powerful political espionage thriller that keeps reader's interest from the first page to the last line. There are numerous interesting subplots augmenting the story line, but the heart of THE THIRD OPTION remains the protagonist. Mitch wants to come into the heat of love and out from the cold, but struggles to bury his previous life without it interring him. From almost the onset, readers know who the villains are, but that does not slow down this thrill a page novel.

Harriet Klausner

I have now read all but one of Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series. Five in all, I think. I did not read them in the order they were written. Much to Flynn's credit, they don't have to be read in order. Each volume stands alone.

Mitch Rapp is an assassin, a part of the Orion Team, a clandestine effort known only to a few in the U.S. government. The President,a very few people at the CIA who povide covert assistance and a very few members of Congress. The purpose of the Orion Team is to bring the war on terror to the terrorists with surgical, fatal strikes. Mitch Rapp is the chosen instrument and he is very good at his job. But Mitch wants out. He has met and fallen in love with Anna Reilly, a television reporter.

This will be Rapp's last job, he thinks. The assasination of a German Count who has done business with Saddam once too often. The CIA has provided two helpers for the task. One of them tries to murder Rapp seconds after he has dispatched the German.

(...)

The plot, as it is with all Flynn novels, is convoluted with double-crosses as common as snow in the mountains. When Flynn writes a political thriller, it is indeed political. He is hard on appeasers and obviously sees many politicians as self-serving and even traitorous.

Flynn's Mitch Rapp and all the other characters are richly drawn. They are all believable: good guys and bad guys alike. The suspense is tight on every page. And the body count grows with every page.

Flynn is, in my opinion, the absolute master of the political thriller. "The Third Option" is, again in my opinion, a masterpiece of the genre.

Jerry

Vince Flynn surpasses the strong efforts of his first two novels, "Term Limits" and "Transfer of Power" with a powerful, edge of your seat story of espionage, terrorism, and suspense.

Mitch Rapp, the hero of "Transfer of Power", is once again the central focus of this novel. I find Flynn's ability to make Rapp almost superhuman at times, and confused and vulnerable at other times to be very endearing. The characters surrounding Rapp add depth to the storytelling. The action is great, the ability of Flynn to continually and credibly sew "seeds of distrust" keep you glued to the pages, and the plot line is filled with enough twists and turns to keep even a moderate fan of the genre interested. Finally, Flynn presents the episodes with enough technical detail to be believable, but not in the extraordinarily boring manner of a Tom Clancy. All in all, if I had three thumbs, they'd all be up for the writer and this novel!

In THE THIRD OPTION, Vince Flynn brings back his character of Mitch Rapp, whom he made famous in TRANSFER OF POWER. In this novel, Rapp is sent to assassinate a German citizen by order of the President of the United States. It is a top-secret mission for which the President will have total deniability should be Mitch be exposed to the situation. Things do not go quite as plan and Mitch manages to escape from Germany without being caught.

Flynn exposes a Washington conspiracy in which certain individuals want to embarrass the President as well as the CIA. The head of the CIA is dying of cancer and the Senate and the House of Representatives are discrediting his chosen successor. The action in this book is taut and suspenseful. I enjoyed it.

The author brings backs characters from his previous works and have them play important roles in the novel. He is preparing them up for the continuation of the storyline, which I assume will be reflected in SEPARATION OF POWER. This story does have a self-contained beginning and end, but some readers might not like that the main villain does not get his comeuppance. I think it is important just to meet the character, see what he is capable off and hope that he gets his `just desserts' in the next book.

I am going to punish Flynn a little for this one (yeah right). The Third Option and Separation of Power are really one novel broken down into two bits. After reading both, I realized that Flynn may have written one novel, knew it was too large for his crowd (Flynn stick below 500 pages), and he had to write some extra filler for two books worth of info. The new characters that are introduced are worth the read. Bringing in the Mossad and Ben Friedman was an intriguing catch point that kept Separation of Power going. That being said, I will talk more in my review of Separation of Power as The Third Option seems to just be the kicking off point for the story that develops there.

Vince Flynn has done it again. He has proven that he is the next Tom Clancy. The "Third Option" continues to show he is a master of action/suspense/political thriller novels. All three of his novels are page turners that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Once you pick up one you will not want to put it down. I give this novel along with his other two(Term Limits and Transfer of Power) five stars.

Oh, how we yearn these days to believe that our CIA has such people working for it as Mitch Rapp, a member of the Orion Team who has become a legend within The Agency. Code named Ironman, it looks as though Rapp has ended his service to our country, when after taking out a German industrialist who was aiding Sadaam Hussein to build weapons of mass destruction, his partner in the hit, turns her gun on Rapp and fires two bullets into his chest at point blank range.

Through the miracle of Kevlar, Rapp survives (although few others do) and spends the rest of the book trying to figure out who wanted him dead and why.

Deftly written, Flynn makes his characters very believeable and the scenarios they encounter more than plausable. His use of dialogue, something I admire in any gifted writer, is excellent and you are drawn through the pages at a pace which does damage to your sleep time, but which leaves you looking forward to the knowledge that there is a sequel to this book, Separation of Power, waiting in your "books to be read pile." I discovered the author Jan Karon, after she had written five of her books in the Mitford series and had the luxury of reading them seriatum. I am equally fortunate with Mr. Flynn and only hope that his imagination and his energy level remain high, so that he can keep drawing us through his world of danger, espionage and intrigue.