Book Review – Vince Flynn’s “The Third Option”

Following a few months after the events of Transfer of Power, the first Vince Flynn book starring his hero, Mitch Rapp, is the book, The Third Option.

The book’s title refers to a process of handing an international problem.  The first option is to use diplomacy.  If that fails the second option is to use a military strike.  If the military cannot be used for one reason or another, then solving the problem comes down to the third option, an assassination.  The assassin leaves behind no traces of his or her origin, allowing the attacking country deniability.

The Third Option begins in northern Germany as Mitch Rapp is on an assassination assignment with the CIA.  His target is the wealthy Count Heinrich Hagenmiller V, an arms dealer who supplies weapons to Saddam Hussein and other enemies of the United States.  Don’t worry about why Germany continues to protect Hagenmiller or what Saddam Hussein thinks about the matter.  The Third Option jumps right into the assassination and its aftermath.

Rapp checks out the exterior of Hagenmiller’s mansion and then meets up with his two mission companions, known to him as Tom and Jane Hoffman.  Rapp doesn’t like being in a team with them and is suspicious of their actions, but the three of them plan the assassination of the wealthy count.  Rapp and Jane Hoffman pose as Germany’s federal agents and talk their way into the mansion.  While in a private room, Rapp kills Hagenmiller while Jane takes out one of his bodyguards.  Before he can stop her, Jane shoots Rapp twice in the chest, leaving him for dead.  Without bothering to fire a final round into his head, Jane flees from the mansion and she and Tom make their getaway.

Fortunately, Mitch Rapp was wearing body armor and was only temporarily knocked out during his attack.  Rapp is forced to set fire to the room to cover his DNA evidence, and then he easily flees from the burning mansion.  Rapp steals a car, gets to an airport, and kidnaps a taxi driver to take him to another city in Germany.  From there Mitch Rapp uses his fake IDs to easily make his way back to the United States.  As you can guess, at this point Mitch Rapp is upset and doesn’t know who to trust in the government.

Back in the U.S., we’re re-introduced to Anna Reilly, the hot female reporter that Mitch Rapp rescued from terrorists in Transfer of Power.  She’s waiting for Mitch to return home so that he can finally quit working with the CIA and try to live a normal life.  She begins to grow worries as it takes longer and longer for Mitch to make contact with her again.

Immediately after the assassination of Count Hagenmiller makes the international news, the politicians and leaders in Washington, D.C. try to find out what happened and how it could be used in an advantage.  Naturally, the White House and CIA deny any involvement at all in the assassination.  Congressman Albert Rudin isn’t fooled by the CIA’s denial, and he uses the assassination to try to shut down the spy agency.

Meanwhile, Congressman Michael O’Rourke (the hero from Term Limits) receives a coded message from Mitch Rapp telling him to get Anna and have her stay with him and his pregnant wife, Elizabeth.  It turns out that O’Rourke and Rapp actually know each other, and Anna and Elizabeth are personal friends.  It’s also revealed that Rapp is also friends with Scott Coleman, a retired Navy SEAL and close friend of Michael O’Rourke.  This helps connect Term Limits (a great standalone book) with Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp franchise.

Thomas Stansfield is still the Director of the CIA, but his advanced form of cancer is eating him alive.  He literally only has a couple of weeks left to live.  His impending death puts more of an emphasis on Dr. Irene Kennedy to lead the investigation into the Hagenmiller assassination and what went wrong with Mitch Rapp.  As far as they know he was reported dead at the scene.  Kennedy is also being shaped into becoming the next Director of the CIA once Stansfield is gone.

It turns out that the Jansens are really called the Hoffmans, and they live in Colorado.  Dr. Kennedy hires Scott Coleman and his colleagues to bring the Hoffmans back to Langley so the CIA could debrief them and find out what really happened in Germany.  The only problem is that while Coleman and his men are surveying the Hoffmans’ residence in Colorado, they witness a unknown person assassinate both Tom and Jane Hoffman.  Coleman returns empty handed to Virginia and reports the assassination to Stansfield and Dr. Kennedy.

While Coleman is meeting at Stansfield’s house with him and Dr. Kennedy, Mitch Rapp suddenly appears in their room, holding them all at gunpoint.  After making his way through France and back to northern Virginia, Rapp was convinced that his boss was the one who ordered the hit on him.  However, after having a brief conversation with Coleman, Stansfield and Dr. Kennedy, Rapp believes they are innocent.  The real mastermind is still lurking out there.

We readers quickly find out that the mastermind is none other than Senator Henry Clark, a wealthy and senior member of Congress with his eye on the presidency.  Clark was the one who wanted Mitch Rapp dead at the scene of Hagenmiller’s assassination.  He knew that Rapp’s death would expose the CIA’s involvement in the assassination, and that in turn would force U.S. President Hayes to step down from office.  Senator Clark would be seen as the hero for exposing the corruption in Washington and easily be swept into the presidency by the voters.

In addition to gaining the presidency, Senator Clark is against somebody like Dr. Kennedy gaining control of the CIA.  He forms an alliance with Congressman Rudin and Secretary of State Charles Middleton to prevent Dr. Kennedy’s nomination as Director of the CIA.

But first things first.  Once the Hoffmans return from their mission in Germany, Senator Clark wants them dead.  He hires a group of contract killers lead by Peter Cameron (known as “Professor”) to permanently silence the Hoffmans.  It’s Cameron himself who fires the shots that kill Tom and Jane Hoffman outside their home in Colorado.

But the killings don’t end there.  Cameron watches as his own men are also killed back in Virginia.  It looks like anybody who knows anything about Senator Clark’s secret plans are being assassinated, wiping out the paper trail and any connections.

Mitch Rapp’s appearance again in the U.S. doesn’t stop Senator Clark.  He has Cameron kidnap Anna Reilly and hold her hostage at Rapp’s own house, setting a deadly trap for Rapp.

Fortunately, Rapp is quickly able to figure out the trap, and using the CIA’s surveillance abilities, he’s able to reconnaissance his own home and plan an attack.  Rapp uses one of the guards in his plan, and he, Coleman, and some of Coleman’s colleagues raid his home.  The bad guys are quickly killed in a systematic manner and Anna is rescued by Mitch.

The hunt is on now for the Professor.  Mitch is hot on his heels as he and Coleman discover the man’s recently abandoned apartment.  They know his true identity and quickly make their way to Georgetown University where Peter Cameron really is a professor.  Unfortunately, an Italian, female assassin known as Donatella Rahn beats Rapp and Coleman to Cameron.  She poses as a student and quickly kills Cameron with basically an ice pick to the ear.  It turns out that Senator Clark hired Rahn to eliminate Cameron and end that trail.

The only problem is that Mitch Rapp identified Donatella Rahn as she was walking away from Cameron’s office.  Rapp and Rahn have some kind of history together, but we’re unaware of the details.  All we really know is that Mitch knows that Donatella killed Cameron, and for now he’s keeping that a secret to himself.  As we know, Donatella was hired and can point the finger to Senator Clark.

President Hayes learns from Stansfield about the coup that was being planned against him.  They don’t know about Senator Clark’s involvement, but they know that Congressman Rudin and Secretary of State Middleton are part of the conspiracy of their own political party.  President Hayes forces Middleton to sign a resignation as Secretary of State, and he pulls all re-election funding from Congressman Rudin.  Rudin’s career as a politician in Washington is finished.  President Hayes later learns that Middleton was later found dead from what appeared to be a suicide.

The Third Option ends with Thomas Stansfield offering Mitch Rapp a “real” position within the CIA.  His expertise on the Middle East is desperately needed, and future Director Dr. Kennedy will need all the help she can get.  Rapp accepts Stansfield’s job offer and continues working for the government.

Senator Clark is still alive and well at the end of the book, and he’s planning on doing something to stop Dr. Kennedy’s CIA nomination process.

As a whole, The Third Option feels like an incomplete story.

First of all, the events in Germany were way too quick and simple.  We really don’t get any back story about Count Hagenmiller, and there’s almost no response from the German government.  Their ambassador visits President Hayes in the White House, but that’s it.  It’s kind of interesting that Saddam Hussein doesn’t do anything either considering he just lost a source of weapons in the black market.

Second, the whole conspiracy involving Senator Clark also feels incomplete.  His actions seem basic and we really don’t know a whole lot about him.  Considering he’s the primary villain and mastermind in the book, we really don’t know anything about the guy.  It’s hard to dislike something that you don’t know.

The book’s ending is a bit of a toss-up.  Leaving Senator Clark alive and presumably not under any suspicion by the CIA leaves plenty of room for him in a sequel.  But the way that it was handled in the book just feels like Vince Flynn took a shortcut and didn’t bother to finish his story.

We need to remember that The Third Option is about the grand conspiracy to not only kill and frame Mitch Rapp, but also topple the U.S. President.  Everything else is just secondary.  It’s ALL because of Senator Clark.  It would have been nice if Mitch Rapp at least had some solid evidence at the end of The Third Option that pointed in Clark’s direction.  But there isn’t.  The only clue that connects Clark to the killings is Donatella Rahn, a character that Rapp has yet to speak to in these Flynn books.

The story ends right there with Rapp, President Hayes and Dr. Kennedy presumable knowing nothing about Senator Clark’s involvement in the conspiracy.  We the readers know all about it, but the characters are left in the dark.  And that’s how Vince Flynn leaves us at the end of the book.  Great.

It’s a shame that The Third Option falls short of the greatness of Term Limits and then Transfer of Power.  Hopefully book number four, Separation of Power, is a more complete story.

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This article was originally published at www.chamberofreviews.com on October 24, 2012.