Friday, February 17, 2012

Vince Flynn – Kill Shot (Atria Books)

Kill Shot marks the 13th novel from thriller author Vince Flynn and the second installment of the American Assassin series of books, designed to back fill the story of Flynn’s heroic killer Mitch Rapp.



The story finds Rapp diligently and single-handedly working his way through a hit list of terrorists when someone throws a wrench in the works and sends assassins after the assassin, leaving Rapp on the run and doubting the players on his own team.

The story line of Washington insider infighting, political types getting in the way of people doing the heavy lifting is a familiar one to Flynn fans. Flynn does a masterful job of painting the halls of power and the action in the field. You can feel the slime of the Washington insiders and envision the hulking thugs.

Kill Shot is light on plot but heavy on great characters and does its job of filling in the blanks about how Rapp became the stone cold hero. While the whole story takes place over a short period of time and limited space, it is the interactions between the characters and their often diametrically opposite goals that drives the story
Flynn draws characters in black and white, who remain interesting and easy to love or hate. While the initial shot in this series, American Assassin, left some fans short, this round has Flynn back and track and me looking forward the forthcoming third installment.

No comments: