Memorial Day by Vince Flynn

Memorial Day by Vince Flynn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


24 in a book.

Like 24, if you try to take this book seriously, you can find plenty to critique. It's treatment of terrorism lacks nuance, and every character is a perfect physical specimen.

But if you're doing that, you're reading it wrong. The quote on the cover says "The king of high concept political intrigue". If you replace the "concept" with "energy" then it's right on. The story is kinetic.

Because I started this on the 6th book, I didn't have as much connection with "Mitch Rapp, Superagent", so sometimes didn't sympathize with him. I felt a little like my approval for his actions was taken for granted, even when those actions were very extreme. I believe that had I started with the first book, my ability to suspend disbelief for a story that I had invested in would be stronger, and my enjoyment better.

Now, because I think it's interesting, I'm going to talk about some things that prove I sometimes was "reading the book wrong".

1. In real life, I think Mitch Rapp would be very messed up. He would need serious counseling to function in civilized society.
2. In real life, the ticking time bomb situation is probably hopeless. If your intelligence has failed to that extent, it's probably too late to save it by torturing people for information. But maybe you do it anyway, because you have to try?
3. In real life, terrorists have a lot of different kinds of motivation(nationalism, personal revenge, power fantasies, religious radicalism). Not every terrorist is motivated by a radical reading of the Koran.

To be fair, this is a fantasy though. It's the author's attempt to say, "Wouldn't it be amazing if there were an agent like Mitch Rapp, working against terrorists, keeping us safe?" And even a way of saying, maybe there's not one person doing all these things, but it's amazing the things people are doing to keep us safe.



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