Vince Flynn passed away after beginning this novel. His estate and publisher asked Kyle Mills, another fantastic thriller author, to step in and finish the book. I’ve read all of Flynn’s novels, and I’m happy to report that Mills has done a great job of continuing the series.

The Survivor picks up right after the events of 2012’s The Last Man. Rapp, Irene Kennedy, Stan Hurley and Mike Nash are still trying to clean up the mess after the defection of a high-clearance CIA handler. It is up to Rapp to find the information, and stop its continued leaking. As it stands, Rickman seems to have planned staggered leaks that will do maximum damage to the CIA — and Kennedy and Rapp in particular. The hunt for the information takes Rapp and his associates all over the world, jumping from Europe to the Middle East and back again. To make things harder for Rapp, he also has to deal with the assassin who was sent after him and killed his wife and child. Needless to say, he has lots on his mind.

Kyle Mills, author of the Mark Beamon thrillers (among many other great thrillers), does a great job of picking up where Flynn left off. In many ways, he was the logical choice to continue the series. As with previous novels in the series, there is plenty of commentary on contemporary (albeit, pre-Trump) US politics and foreign affairs. The authors are unstinting on their criticism of the hypocrisies, absurdities and disconnects in policy. In this novel, America’s Pakistan policy comes under the microscope, and the novel has a lot to say about this — not much of it complimentary.

“It was a self-destructive behavior that persisted to this day. America continued to pump money into the country that had created — and still quietly supported — the Taliban. A country that had sold nuclear technology to Libya, Iran, and North Korea. A country that had hidden Osama bin Laden and now hosted the most dangerous terrorist organizations in the world.”

Flynn’s novels have also always skewered the hypocrisy of politicians in Washington. While he was clearly conservative, he was unforgiving in his derision for politicians who were only interested in keeping their jobs, as opposed to fulfilling their constitutionally dictated roles and serving the people. (One can only wonder what he would have thought about President Trump, “alternative facts”, and today’s Republican-led Congress.)

“The simple truth was that the increasingly dysfunctional men and women in Washington weren’t interested in making the difficult choices necessary to win the war against extremism. Pakistan would continue to demand U.S. dollars under the auspices of keeping its nuclear arsenal secure, and the American politicians would continue to blindly hand it over, hoping that it would be enough to keep the lid on the pot long enough to get them through the next election cycle.”

And, even more bluntly:

“Displaying fake indignation had become Congress’s primary job description.”

While it’s been some time since I last read a novel by Flynn, I found Rapp to be rather more thuggish in The Survivor than I remember him being in previous books. He’s an assassin, sure, but there was always a point to his brutality (regardless of whether or not I agreed with it on an ideological level). At times during The Survivor, his machismo boiled over, and it came across as posturing and a bit bro-like. Which is strange, because Rapp is probably the last person in fiction who needs to protest too much to hide his deficiencies. Maybe this was just a result of Mills still getting familiar with the character, or just some missed polishing. As a result, I found him a little less sympathetic and engaging as a character.

However, and this kept me reading and interested in the series: there is more focus on what his ordeals have done to him as a person and as a CIA asset. He is clearly suffering from PTSD, grief, and various other obvious psychological issues that would come from the loss of his family, and years in the life he’s led. There are signs that things are changing for him, however, and he makes a number of moves that brought to mind the nuances I remembered from past novels. Rapp’s co-stars are also better rounded, and the novel sees them gaining a little more prominence in the tale, something I hope will continue into the next novels.

Filled with interesting details, sharp observations, and intricate plotting, The Survivor is a great continuation of the long-running series. Mitch Rapp & Co. are in fine hands with Kyle Mills, and I hope we see many more novels in the future.

When Joe Rickman, a former golden boy of the CIA, elaborately steals a massive amount of the Agency’s most classified documents, CIA director Irene Kennedy has no choice but to send her most dangerous weapon after him, Mitch Rapp. Rapp quickly dispatches the traitor, but Rickman proves to be a deadly threat to America even from beyond the grave. Mysterious tip-offs are appearing all over the world, linked to the potentially devastating data that Rickman stored somewhere only he knew. It’s a deadly race to the finish as both the Pakistanis and the Americans search desperately for Rickman’s accomplices and, to save America from being held hostage by a country set on becoming the world’s newest nuclear superpower, Rapp must outrun and outgun his deadliest enemies yet.

Vince Flynn, the author of the Mitch Rapp series, died in 2013 and the Mitch Rapp character has been taken forward by Kyle Mills, including finishing this book that Vince was writing at the time of his death. The biggest compliment I can pay Kyle is that I really thought that the whole book had been written by Vince himself. This is a blistering novel that picks up where The Last Man left off and is full of the hallmarks of Vince's writing, that being an inside knowledge of the workings of the behemoth that is the CIA.

The book has the action, the attitude and the same Mitch Rapp that his fans know and love and. although it is number 14 in the series, I am delighted to hear that Kyle Mills will be writing another two novels about Mitch Rapp to follow this one. Kyle's first effort is a fast-paced, word travelling action-packed thriller, with many wells thought out new and great returning characters. There were the usual James Bond-like shenanigans cast throughout the world with locations such as Russia, Switzerland, Pakistan and Italy.

I was so happy that Kyle kept the main characters from earlier adventures such as Irene Kennedy, Stan Hurley, and Scott Coleman and he portrayed them as brilliantly as Vince had done throughout this blockbuster of a series. My own slight concern which nearly lost the book a star is that Mitch Rapp, since the loss of his wife, is beginning to degenerate into an almost psychotic killing machine where a bullet in the head is his main answer to anyone that disagrees with his version of America's place in the world. I hope that the next book softens his character somewhat, maybe even introducing another love into his life.

All in all, though, Kyle Mills has done an excellent job at what must have been a very difficult task and, not that I think he will ever read this review, I would like to thank him for resurrecting one of my favourite characters following the untimely death of the great Vince Flynn.

Digger95

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review