The Third Option

The motive soon becomes clear; there are people who'll stop at nothing to remove Kennedy from the helm of the agency after Stansfield dies. One thing they didn't count on was Rapp's survival, and now he's a lethal weapon whose sights are fixed directly on the most powerful among them. This is a strong, swift thriller, a bit predictable (the senator in the black hat has dogs named Caesar and Brutus) but nonetheless involving. Author Vince Flynn sustains the dramatic tension from the opening paragraph to the last; in Mitch Rapp, he's got the makings of a promising series hero. --Jane Adams

Product Description

When diplomacy has failed and military intervention is deemed inappropriate, our leaders sometimes take THE THIRD OPTION.

CIA counterterrorism operative Mitch Rapp falls prey to government forces with an agenda of their own after Dr. Irene Kennedy is named the successor to dying CIA Director Thomas Stansfield -- a choice that enrages many inside the world's most powerful intelligence agency. Her detractors will resort to extreme measures to prevent her from taking the reins -- which makes Rapp an expendable asset. But Mitch Rapp is no one's pawn, and he will stop at nothing to find out who has set him up.

His last assignment calls for him to assassinate a German industrialist helping Hussein rebuild the Iraqi nuclear arsenal. After completing the mission, one of his peers tries to eliminate Mitch, but fails to kill the operative. Alone and hunted, Mitch manages to return to the States to attempt to uncover the identity of the individual paying the assassination bills. When his enemy grabs his beloved girlfriend, Mitch vows to kill everyone who might be involved even if it means raiding the Halls of Congress and the White House.

Vince Flynn, author of TERM LIMITS and TRANSFER OF POWER, writes another powerful political espionage thriller that keeps reader's interest from the first page to the last line. There are numerous interesting subplots augmenting the story line, but the heart of THE THIRD OPTION remains the protagonist. Mitch wants to come into the heat of love and out from the cold, but struggles to bury his previous life without it interring him. From almost the onset, readers know who the villains are, but that does not slow down this thrill a page novel.

Harriet Klausner


Vince Flynn Goes Three For Three With the "Third Option"   November 29, 2000
Kathryn Horton (Detroit, MI USA)
14 out of 16 found this review helpful

Vince Flynn surpasses the strong efforts of his first two novels, "Term Limits" and "Transfer of Power" with a powerful, edge of your seat story of espionage, terrorism, and suspense.

Mitch Rapp, the hero of "Transfer of Power", is once again the central focus of this novel. I find Flynn's ability to make Rapp almost superhuman at times, and confused and vulnerable at other times to be very endearing. The characters surrounding Rapp add depth to the storytelling. The action is great, the ability of Flynn to continually and credibly sew "seeds of distrust" keep you glued to the pages, and the plot line is filled with enough twists and turns to keep even a moderate fan of the genre interested. Finally, Flynn presents the episodes with enough technical detail to be believable, but not in the extraordinarily boring manner of a Tom Clancy. All in all, if I had three thumbs, they'd all be up for the writer and this novel!


Flynn writes a taut political thriller   September 22, 2005
Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful

I have now read all but one of Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series. Five in all, I think. I did not read them in the order they were written. Much to Flynn's credit, they don't have to be read in order. Each volume stands alone.

Mitch Rapp is an assassin, a part of the Orion Team, a clandestine effort known only to a few in the U.S. government. The President,a very few people at the CIA who povide covert assistance and a very few members of Congress. The purpose of the Orion Team is to bring the war on terror to the terrorists with surgical, fatal strikes. Mitch Rapp is the chosen instrument and he is very good at his job. But Mitch wants out. He has met and fallen in love with Anna Reilly, a television reporter.

This will be Rapp's last job, he thinks. The assasination of a German Count who has done business with Saddam once too often. The CIA has provided two helpers for the task. One of them tries to murder Rapp seconds after he has dispatched the German.

(...)

The plot, as it is with all Flynn novels, is convoluted with double-crosses as common as snow in the mountains. When Flynn writes a political thriller, it is indeed political. He is hard on appeasers and obviously sees many politicians as self-serving and even traitorous.

Flynn's Mitch Rapp and all the other characters are richly drawn. They are all believable: good guys and bad guys alike. The suspense is tight on every page. And the body count grows with every page.

Flynn is, in my opinion, the absolute master of the political thriller. "The Third Option" is, again in my opinion, a masterpiece of the genre.

Jerry


Good Reading...but...   December 16, 2000
The Erwin Family (Fremont, Ca USA)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

This is my third Flynn Book in as many weeks and it lacks the intensity of the first two. I sensed Flynn pushed the manuscript through a little to fast and was not able to offer the quality equal to his first two books. My advice would be to wait for the paperback. Warning: If you insist on reading The Third Option, I would strongly suggest that you read Term Limits and Transfer of Power first. Reading both beforehand will offer greater insight into those who Mitch Rapp trusts and why and frankly they're both great books. Otherwise some of the pieces will not fit.


No Options Here - Just Keep Reading   October 26, 2001
John R. Linnell (New Gloucester, ME United States)
10 out of 13 found this review helpful

Oh, how we yearn these days to believe that our CIA has such people working for it as Mitch Rapp, a member of the Orion Team who has become a legend within The Agency. Code named Ironman, it looks as though Rapp has ended his service to our country, when after taking out a German industrialist who was aiding Sadaam Hussein to build weapons of mass destruction, his partner in the hit, turns her gun on Rapp and fires two bullets into his chest at point blank range.

Through the miracle of Kevlar, Rapp survives (although few others do) and spends the rest of the book trying to figure out who wanted him dead and why.

Deftly written, Flynn makes his characters very believeable and the scenarios they encounter more than plausable. His use of dialogue, something I admire in any gifted writer, is excellent and you are drawn through the pages at a pace which does damage to your sleep time, but which leaves you looking forward to the knowledge that there is a sequel to this book, Separation of Power, waiting in your "books to be read pile." I discovered the author Jan Karon, after she had written five of her books in the Mitford series and had the luxury of reading them seriatum. I am equally fortunate with Mr. Flynn and only hope that his imagination and his energy level remain high, so that he can keep drawing us through his world of danger, espionage and intrigue.