Mitch Rapp is a lone CIA assassin standing in a hotel room in Paris. As he shoots his target, the hotel room door is kicked open and Mitch finds himself in hail of semi-automatic gunshot. His professional reflexes kick in as he dives for cover and assesses his situation. Momentarily he actually has the upper hand as he knows that the others are amateurs and about to run out of ammo. This isn’t giving anything away as readers also know that killing off the hero/narrator in the opening chapters isn’t going to happen.
Mitch was tasked with killing an individual, now there are nine deaths including four civilian bystanders (two hotel guests, one hotel worker and a prostitute). That’s not just a lot of explaining to do.
Political in-fighting with his CIA handler and superiors put him at risk of being silenced permanently, so he can’t trust them. His target was a Libyan minister who also worked for their intelligence agency with a side-line in terrorist activities. Mitch has to find out who the shooting party were and fast. Meanwhile a French intelligence agent is hindering and slowing down the police investigation whilst also monitoring the movements of various middle eastern diplomats and spies who are turning up in the aftermath of the murder. The shooting party itself is torn by frustrations as they failed to stop the lone assassin despite having apparently superior firepower and outnumbering him. Nine bodies are drawing a lot of attention towards people who’d rather stay in the shadows and plenty of people want the lone assassin dead. Is Mitch a cat among pigeons or a mouse is a city of cats?
Mitch has resources, not least his CIA training, and secrets of his own, but he’s injured and time is not on his side. His handler and her superiors know that if he feels he’s been betrayed, he will hunt down and despatch the traitor. They too have a vested interest in tracking down the source of the leak before Mitch does. Mitch’s instinct proves right, there is a traitor in the team but it’s not the obvious candidate. But can Mitch supply proof to superiors before he’s killed? Vince Flynn makes sure readers are clear on which character they are following and where the action is taking place, without insulting his readers’ intelligence.
If “Kill Shot” were a movie, it would be a good popcorn movie. Like all good popcorn movies, its primary aim is entertainment through a reasonably credible situation, likeable main characters and plenty of action. “Kill Shot” meets all those criteria, making it a slick, captivating read.
By Emma Lee.
Emma Lee's Blog 
March 24, 2012 at 8:50 am
Vince Flynn has not let his readers down one bit with Act of Treason. It features Mitch Rapp, master spy, and all the characters that go along with Mitch’s vocation. The story opens in a motorcade of presidential candidates before election. Terror threats had been made so this caravan was being watched very closely by all involved security. But, as sometimes occurs, all the prevention taken against terrorism was not enough for this motorcade.
Mark