Samyann
Audiobook, written by Vince Flynn, read by Nick Sullivan
After hearing of Vince Flynn’s death on June 19, 2013, I was terribly saddened. The writing world lost a terrific champion and skilled author. Vince Flynn is an example of the tenacity of a talented writer initially shunned by mainstream publishers. After a few dozen rejections, he self-published his first novel in the late 1990s, Term Limits. This was published well before the modern popularity of on-line publishing. I would imagine, at that time, that Flynn would have sold copies from the trunk of his car. Beyond that, it’s a mystery to me how he accomplished pushing his story to best selling status, but he did. Mmmmm. Maybe he was that good.
I decided to re-listen to one of the Mitch Rapp stories, The Third Option, released in 2000. Although the lead character works for a clandestine and unknown arm of the CIA specializing in anti-terrorism, that is not what the story is about. The bad guys in The Third Option are right here among our Washington, DC leaders. The story, unlike many Mitch Rapp capers, was written before the tragedies of 9/11, before Vince Flynn devoted his patriotism to ‘real’ bad guys bent on simply killing all Americans. It is extraordinarily interesting that Vince Flynn had the foresight to predict the need for this type of defense, but he did … just look at the publishing dates of his many novels.
The Third Option is about power. The power of political office, and the hunger of some individuals for this political power. The Third Option falls into that period of limbo for some political authors that is between the cold war and the war on terror. If you’ve wondered what those authors wrote about that was exciting after the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the USSR and KGB, this is a good one to consider.
As a narrator, Nick Sullivan does a good job. But, when you have great material, that’s not too difficult.
RIP, Vince Flynn. I’ve several of your books and will listen again to them all, many times.
