Oath of Loyalty, Vince Flynn, Kyle Mills, authors; George Guidall, narrator
I really wait for each of Vince Flynn’s new books. My husband and I listen to the Mitch Rapp series as we drive to and fro. They are really entertaining and absorbing, usually, but this one, although read well by Guidall, was not as exciting as his previous books.
When Mitch discovers that his close friend, Mike Nash, has been sent to either recruit him to support President Tony Cook, or to eliminate him, he manages to turn the tables, and there are disastrous results for his friend when he takes his own life. Now, however, Mitch is on the run. It seems that the President of the United States, Anthony Cook (Tony), a man of questionable character, and his wife, Catherine, have dreams of grandeur, and they want him out of the way. He is dangerous to their plan to control the government and the country by eliminating all adversaries and changing the world order to fit their ideals. Already they have been able to remove Irene Kennedy, former director of the CIA, without violence, but not amicably, as Tony puts his Chief of Staff and advisor, Darren Hargrave into her shoes and office as Acting Director. Although Catherine did not trust Hargrave, she was powerless to stop him from getting inside the President’s head and pushing her out of the picture.
Meanwhile, they are still set on eliminating Mitch Rapp and even Claudia Gould (who was once on the wrong side of the law, and a terrorist herself, working alongside her husband, whom Mitch murders), and her daughter Anna, attributing it to collateral damage. Claudia is living under an assumed name with Mitch. To flush Mitch out, Hargrave decides to leak Claudia’s name and whereabouts to her enemies. Catherine disagrees with the plan. She believes that they can compromise with Rapp, that they can neutralize him, and not have him as a dangerous and formidable enemy, but Hargrave ratchets up Cook’s fear. He becomes almost his puppet, and is terrified of Rapp’s possible attempts on his life. He begins to stay out of sight and becomes almost reclusive to Catherine’s utter chagrin. She believes he is ruining his future because of his inability to think straight. She has always been the brains and he the personality, but now he listens to someone else and remains in hiding.
The most exciting scenes take place at Rapp’s super fortified house in South Africa, with Claudia and Anna in a safe room, as they come under a ferocious attack sponsored by the US government, Hargrave and Cook. After the failed attempts on Rapp and Gould, they take refuge at Nick Ward’s protected compound in Uganda. There they find Irene, as well who conspires with them for their safety. No one really knows who will win this war, but many unscrupulous and violent partners are involved as each tries to eliminate the other. Finally, Hargrave recommends using a group called Legion. They are expensive, but they are considered the failsafe opportunity to finally end their conflict. Someone has to disappear, and they want it to be Rapp. As it plays out, it seems fairly obvious who will be standing at the end because this is most definitely not the end of the series.
Legion is a group of three women, originally trained to be human weapons, killers, masterminds of terror, leaving no footprint behind, to be used against Israel. When the Iranian Revolutionary Guard had a change of leadership, their program was eliminated and they were reassigned to the typing pool as a means of humiliating them. Instead, the three survivors of the program eliminated the commander, brutally, and went out on their own. When it is discovered that Legion has been hired to trap them, they know that they are in trouble. Legion has never failed to capture and eliminate its prey. Mitch wants to definitely know who is behind this effort to trap him down, so he can go after them. He believes he knows who it is, but he has no proof. Irene Kennedy devises a plan, and as it plays out, the story is obvious, but interesting. It is just not edge of your seat interesting, as more and more devious ways are designed to eliminate each other, but it is intriguing.
There are times when the reader may try to figure out which President of ours Cook is supposed to be most like, but ultimately, the reader may be forced to decide that he is simply a combination of all we do not want a President to actually be. So let this be a warning to the reader to be more careful when it comes time to elect a leader. The vote is the only weapon. Think about all of the ramifications before a decision is made.
I thought the best thing about the book was that it left the door open for Claudia, Mitch and Anna to reappear in the next book in the series. Hopefully, it will have more action than this one did. The script was fairly obvious from the beginning, since nothing untoward was going to happen to those three. My final thought was long live Mitch Rapp.