Book Review – Vince Flynn’s “American Assassin”

The other day I finished reading American Assassin, Vince Flynn‘s twelfth book, and the eleventh in his series of novels featuring Mitch Rapp.

American Assassin is a prequel to the other books in the series.  We all know that Mitch Rapp is a fearless killer who enjoys outsmarting his enemies, but how did he get started in the CIA?  This book showcases Mitch Rapp’s training at a secret CIA training center, and then his first mission as a covert ops warrior.

American Assassin begins at a secret training center near Lake Anna, Virginia.

CIA agent Irene Kennedy drives recent college graduate Mitch Rapp to the training center.  There he is to survive the intense training and compete with six other candidates to be a member of Orion Team, a secret band of covert warriors in a program designed by CIA Director Thomas Stansfield.

Of course, he has to survive the training first, and that’s not an easy task.  Immediately upon arriving at the training camp, the lead instructor, Stan Hurley, challenges Mitch Rapp to a fight.  The fight is brutal, and just when Mitch is about to win, Stan cheats and defeats his opponent.  What Stan didn’t know is that Mitch is highly skilled in martial arts, and that he’s far more dangerous than he looks.

The other candidates discover that as well.  Mitch Rapp has superior intelligence as well as athletic abilities.  The only thing he doesn’t know how to do is shoot a gun, but that’s overcome with some simple instructions by the camp’s instructors.

Mitch’s biggest challenge during the training is when competing against a candidate named Victor.  From the beginning, Victor is a loudmouth who keeps testing his fellow candidates.  He tries to fight them, and he tries to get them kicked out of the unit.  At one point he even breaks a fellow candidate’s nose during a routine fighting session.  Mitch figures out Victor’s secret (he really an instructor) and ultimately fights him, getting the best of the arrogant jerk.

It turns out that Mitch is driven by the desire for revenge.  While Mitch was studying at Syracuse University, his fiancée was killed as one of the victims of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.  Between his relationship to one of the victims, and along with his intelligence and his athleticism, Mitch was recruited by Irene Kennedy to work for the CIA and get his revenge.  He wouldn’t be getting his revenge by sitting behind a desk and tracking the terrorists, but by being out there in the field to carry out the agency’s dirty work.

After finishing his training and proving that he’s the right person to join Orion Team, Mitch is sent overseas to Istanbul, Turkey.  Mitch’s target is Hamdi Sharif, a wealthy person who has a shady past dealing arms and munitions to various organizations.  It turns out that Hamdi is believed to be the person who supplied the terrorists with the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103.

When Mitch is given the paperwork concerning Hamdi Sharif, he spots an angle to attack the man.  The following morning, Mitch disguises himself as a jogger, and he makes sure that his exercise path takes him right by Hamdi’s residence.  Sure enough, Hamdi steps outside and sits on a bench while his dog takes care of business.  When the coast is clear, Mitch sits beside Hamdi and then executes him with a silenced pistol.  Mitch then flees the scene and gets rid of the evidence just as instructed.

The only problem is that Mitch was only supposed to observe Hamdi, and to not make any moves until Stan Hurley arrived a few days later.  This causes a serious uproar back at the CIA, and Mitch is almost kicked out of Orion Team for violating the rules.  Thankfully, Thomas Stansfield admires Mitch, and he sets things straight between Mitch, Stan Hurley, and Irene Kennedy.  It’s a close call, but Mitch is allowed to stay with the team.

Meanwhile, in Beirut, Lebanon, CIA deep-cover agent Jim Cummins had been captured by a terrorist group.  He was sent into Lebanon to try to negotiate the release of another American that had been recently captured.  Assef Sayyed, the leader of the Islamic terrorists, tortures Cummins and eventually extracts some information from him, learning his true identity.  Sayyed plans on selling Cummins to Mikhail Ivanov, a Russian with powerful connections and big aspirations.

The action shifts to Hamburg, Germany.

Mitch arrives in Hamburg and meets with Stan Hurley and a fellow agent named Robert Richards.  This time their target is Hans Dorfman, a banker with connections throughout Europe and the Middle East, including to terrorist organizations.  It’s believed that Hans is assisting the terrorists with moving money through different accounts.  Unlike in Turkey, this time the entire team is going to work together.

The three CIA agents infiltrate Hans’s house and subdue the man.  His wife is tied up and left unharmed.  Hans is uncooperative with Stan until Mitch threatens to kill one of Hans’s prized dogs.  Hans reveals the location of his safe and gives them the combination.  After that he’s swiftly executed.

After fleeing from Hans’s house, the three agents drive to Zurich, Switzerland, to access the Swiss Bank Corporation.  They then use the secret bank account numbers that were stored in Hans’s safe, and they remove all of the money.  This is a move designed to cause an uproar with the terrorists, and to see which of them would respond and reveal their identity.

Later, after spending some time recovering at a friendly residence in Zurich, Stan has a secret meeting with Irene as her private plane is refueling.  She informs him that one of Mikhail Ivanov’s top lieutenants was recently spotted in Hamburg and inquiring about the death of Hans Dorfman.  Ivanov was also caught speaking on the phone with Assef Sayyed.  It’s believed that the two of them were discussing the transfer of an American prisoner currently being held in Beirut.  Irene then tasks Stan with taking Richards and Mitch to Beirut, and trying to rescue Jim Cummins before he’s taken to Moscow.

Stan and Richards quickly arrive in Beirut and try to assess the situation.  Without any solid leads, it’s going to be nearly impossible to discover where Cummins was being held prisoner.  Before he can do that much investigating, both Stan and Richards are kidnapped and taken prisoner by one of Sayyed’s associates.  Stan is later tortured, but he refuses to give up any information.  It’s just a matter of time though before he finally breaks, or Assef Sayyed finally decides to just kill him.

Mitch arrives in Beirut a short while later, and he’s extremely frustrated that his colleagues have been kidnapped, and there’s literally nothing that he can do about it.  He threatens to go into the bad neighborhoods and search for them himself.  It’s later learned that a corrupt police officer was the person who led the kidnapping of Stan and Richards.  Mitch agrees to have the police officer deliver him to a certain hotel in Beirut where it’s certain that Mitch will get Sayyed’s attention.

Sure enough, word quickly spreads about Mitch Rapp looking for Assef Sayyed.  He’s swiftly captured and taken prisoner.  When interrogated, Mitch insists that he is Stan’s son, and that he was sent to negotiate for Stan’s release.

Sayyed has grown tired of Stan Hurley, and he finally decides to execute him.  Just before that happens, Mitch breaks free of his bindings (he had a small razor blade hidden in his hair) and attacks Sayyed’s guards.  Stan is saved and several of the guards are quickly killed by the two CIA agents.  As they flee their compound, they discover that Richards had been executed.

Mitch and Stan fight more terrorists and eventually flee from the building.  Waiting outside in a car is none other than Assef Sayyed himself.  They promptly shoot his guards, take Sayyed prisoner, and then drive away to a safe house in Beirut.

American Assassin ends several days later in Zurich, Switzerland.  CIA Director Thomas Stansfield arranges a meeting with Yevgeny Primakov, Stansfield’s counterpart in Russia.  The meeting was originally supposed to be a prisoner exchange, but Stansfield’s prisoner, Shvets (Mikhail Ivanov’s assistant), refused to return to Russia.  Primakov releases Jim Cummins in exchange for the return of the money that was stolen out of the bank accounts in Zurich.

The final blow is that the stolen money can be traced to Ivanov.  It’s implied that the Soviets will heavily interrogate his actions, and the final outcome will ruin his life.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So is Vince Flynn’s American Assassin any good?

If you’re a fan of Vince Flynn’s books, including the later books in the series, then you’ll most likely enjoy American Assassin.  The simplistic story and writing style are right on par with Flynn’s later style of writing.

As for me, I really didn’t care for this novel.

For starters, basically the first third of this book was a waste of time.  What’s the point in telling us about Mitch Rapp’s training when he’s already smart, he’s very strong, and he is an expert in martial arts (after a very short time training for the martial arts as well)?  From what was written in the book, Rapp was already a super-soldier.  He just needed to learn how to shoot a gun.

That’s really it.

It’s later mentioned that he learned some security tips from Stan Hurley during the training sessions, but nothing like that is actually covered in the book.  The “intense training camp” that is supposed to be extreme is basically nothing more than Mitch Rapp pretending to be weak (to avoid making the Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, and other special forces soldiers from being suspicious), him wanting to beat up Victor, and him matching wits with a psychologist.

In other words, it’s a complete joke.

In fact, this segment of the book (and it’s a major part, too) is so disappointing that I wish that I had never read it.  Mitch Rapp is one of those phenomenal individuals who excels at being a covert ops warrior.  Those details are clearly revealed throughout the series of books.  Knowing that, and also knowing that Rapp has no formal military training, you would have expected maybe a tougher or more intricate transition from civilian to warrior.

But that’s not what takes place in this book.  Many chapters cover Rapp during his time at the training camp, but there is no transition or any real training apart from (briefly) learning how to shoot a pistol.  What’s the point in wasting our time when there’s virtually no change from beginning to ending?

American Assassin really doesn’t get interesting until Rapp finishes his training and begins to go on missions as a covert ops soldier.  Of course, his assignment in Turkey is finished very quickly, and the mission in Germany is just as fast.  It makes for easy storytelling when the plans are executed flawlessly and the characters aren’t in any real danger.

Like his other books, Vince Flynn rushes the ending of American Assassin.

Instead of Mitch Rapp doing an investigation (either with or without any extra help) into the kidnapping of Stan Hurley and Richards, he simply allows himself to be kidnapped by the terrorists.  These are stupid terrorists, and they don’t bother to secure Rapp with chains or handcuffs.  They use tape, and Rapp conveniently has a small razor blade hidden in his hair.  He easily escapes and kills terrorists with the help of Stan Hurley.

It’s a very convenient ending that feels both lazy and unsatisfied.

Unfortunately, this is a frequent problem with Vince Flynn’s writing style.  While the main story can be interesting at times, the ending is often rushed.  Action sequences that could take chapters (*real* chapters and not these five-page chapters that Flynn writes) are instead compressed and heavily simplified, often times insulting us readers.

And that’s on top of using sloppy characters in this story.  Sure, we know all about Mitch Rapp and Stan Hurley, and even the main villain Assef Sayyed, but that’s really it.  All of those other names that are thrown around in the middle and end of the book are just background noise.  Most of them are meaningless and only lead to confusion because they’re handled so poorly.

As it was mentioned earlier, pretty much the sole reason that I continue to read Vince Flynn’s books is that I’m almost finished with the entire series.  Now I only have two books left to read, and I can easily access them through my local library.

It’s a quest.  I’m not thrilled with the later stages of this journey, but, damnit, I’m *going* to finish it!