Book Review: Transfer of Power by Vince Flynn

Transfer of Power is the book where Vince Flynn introduces the readers to Mitch Rapp.

We, the readers, very soon come to see Rapp as the CIA's Jack Bauer-like super agent. Rapp gets things done, gets the bad guys when no one else can.

The book was published in 1999 and does have a slightly Dated quality to it. It’s missing some of the military hardware that is common knowledge today. And being pre-9/11, it still has some of the terrorists who are now gone. However, those details shrink to almost insignificance as the reader is drawn into the excitement as Mitch Rapp hunts down the bad guys.

The story begins with Rapp on a covert operation in Iran. While there he uncovers a possible terrorist attack being planned for the nation's capital and set to happen in the near future. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Anna Rielly is starting her first day as an NBC, White House correspondent. Her first day on the job is also the same day that terrorist, using a secret entrance, take over the White House. The president, escapes, but is trapped in the unfinished bomb shelter. Rapp finds a way into the White House and fights the terrorists from the inside. As he fight the terrorists, he also saves Anna Rielly from being raped by one of the terrorists. It is then, their relationship, which detailed in future books, begins.

Transfer of Power is a great read. It is early in Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series. It sets the tone and the details for Rapp’s becoming a national hero and a super agent.

William K.