The Last Man: A Novel

This gets you from the very beginning! There are so many twists and turns and keeps you guessing through the end! Great book!

"The Last Man" is excellent and will hold your interest from start to finish. Mitch Rapp, the dynamic superhero, is sent to Afghanistan because Joe Rickman, a covert operative, is kidnapped from a safe house. Rickman who has a profound memory retains the names of hundreds of operatives both American and foreign, and when tortured, in all probability, will reveal their identities. Thus, these operatives and assets will be killed and the CIA will be drastically compromised. Mitch has to work fast to find Rickman, and his investigation brings him to Kabul where he is ambushed by a cadre of corrupt Afghani police officers. He and three others engage in a horrific firefight until a helicoptor comes to evacuate them. However, just before the helicoptor arrives, Mitch booby traps the door with oxygen tanks and shoots the tanks just as the police knock down the door. Mitch is injured, and his team member, Scott Coleman, brings him to safety. Mitch is confined to a hospital for a week. Irene Kennedy takes an emergency flight to Afghanistan. And an obnoxious FBI Agent barges into the hospital where Mitch is confined demanding to question him only to be thwarted by a feisty Master Sergeant who refuses to let anyone disrupt any of her patients. This FBI Agent, Wilson by name, claims to have evidence that Mitch Rapp and Joe Rickman have been stealing millions from the CIA coffers and depositing it into a Zurich account. All of this occurs in the first 10% of the book. Intricate plot developments and subplots abound in this book. And there is a twist in this work that is at once creative and ironic. As always in a Vince Flynn work, the characters are well developed, and this book is well-written. And characteristic of this author's style, he imparts technical data of military equipment and armaments. The author also discusses a "reintegration" program that is being implemented in Afghanistan by American diplomats whereby Taliban members, terrorists and decent Afghani citizens are being drawn into government positions. The pitfalls of the program are clear. Vince Flynn in his creation of Mitch Rapp has given us a great American hero. Would it were that there was a real live Mitch Rapp in the world to give us peace of mind. Amazon verified purchase.

This novel begins in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, where four dead men are lined up on the living room floor of a safe house. The bodies shouldn't have been there. Their presence meant that the extensive security measures, meant to protect one man, had been breached. And that man was not one of those on the floor. He had disappeared. Bureaucrats, especially like Samuel Hargrave, and like Darren Sulles, of the FBI are bad, and so are CIA bureaucrats. CIA field level operators, like Mitch Rapp, and Joel Wilson of the FBI are not bureaucrats. The author's anti-liberal political agenda permeates throughout this novel, and distracts the reader, causing skimming to find content. And the FBI does not like to cooperate with the CIA, and doesn't, most of the time. The FBI documents everything in writing: names, activities, contacts, etc.The CIA puts nothing in writing. Arianna Vintner is a shining example of an FBI bureaucrat. Arrogant, discloses nothing, demands everything. The exact opposite of someone like Mitch Rapp. Although married, she is also a passionate woman, whose only glaring weakness is (reportedly) that she thinks she can bully her way to any victory. In Chapter 6, the scene changes, to the U S Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, where Colonel Hunter Poole, (who is having an affair with Adrianna). is having thoughts concerning Vintner and Rapp. He knows her arrogant, uncompromising attitude will not be acceptable to Rapp, who will be attending a conference headed up by Vintner, and from what he had heard about Rapp, it would probably not be wise to attack him in direct fashion. And when he sees Adrianna, he gives her this advice. She scoffs. Sure enough, the conference becomes a shouting match between Vintner and Rapp. The rest of the novel could have been an exciting read, and still is, for the most part. The disappeared man is found, for one thing. Unfortunately, there are many distractions, such as extended descriptions of mundane events and activities that require extensive skimming to find content, which are exceedingly boring. Were it not for these distractions, "The Last Man would definitely have been exciting. As it is, it was still O K

Great read, enjoyed every minute, thrills from the start and looking forward to the next book in this enthralling series.

Read books by this author before and enjoyed very much, so got this. Not read yet though.

Ein absolut gutes Buch. Vince Flynn halt. R.I.P. Ich habe nun alle von ihm und sie fesseln alle beim lesen.

A most pleasant surprise and yes to those other reviewers who consider this the author's best book yet. Big confession -- I had pretty much given up on Rapp and Flynn both, the repetitive formula and the perpetually feigned indignation just was not working for me -- when I picked this up just out of curiosity. I had low expectations. Figured I would see Rapp running hither and yon, doing actiony things, saying angry things. (If you like that you can find a higher octane version in some of the older man-action series, like Executioner or Able Team). Instead what I found was that Rapp was in hospital for much of the story and Flynn had crafted a terse sparse and very compelling spy thriller without his top protagonist. It was a delight and highly recommended.

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