Kyle MillsCritiques

Fun, fast, thriller...enjoyed it.

I would guess that I read my first Kyle Mills around 20+ years ago, and because I thought Free Fall was extremely good he was always on my radar. But I want to say I have read several of his novels since and none ever quite hit any especially high marks, hence, The Second Horseman sat on my shelf for a long while. I even grabbed a couple of books the other day because I had some inkling that this Mills offering would fail to draw me in. Boy was I ever wrong. It most certainly was a nice surprise.

I simply found this book to be: Outstanding! Shockingly Good! Fabulous!

The writing was smart and enjoyable. It was full of intrigue. The characters were all good. And Kyle Mills does a great job of tapping into the inner-workings of the American mind. Even the title deserves excellent marks.

Adventure

Espionage

Espionage

Thriller

Mitch Rapp is back and this time he's going rogue, not that this is a big shock to loyal readers of the late Mr. Lynn's creation. Mitch is tasked with a mission by the POTUS that can be defined on my as unorthodox to say the least. In short, hunt down and assassinate members of the Saudi royal family Why? Aren't they on our side? Well, maybe not. It seems that POTUS believes these family members are actually working with ISIS. It is soon discovered that the king’s nephew is discovered funding ISIS. This forces Mitch to make a life changing decision. He quits the CIA and forms what is essentially of contract killers and rogues to help him

Kyle Mills picks up the mantle left behind with Mr. Flynn's untimely death and has written a non-stop, highly readable, page turner. Enemy of the State is a volatile mix of covert ops, espionage and a take no prisoners thriller that is a great way to end your summer reading list. Fans of Mr. Flynn will not be disappointed and he himself would've probably loved this book as well. That speaks volume about the quality of Mr. Mills's writing. Highly recommend.

2.5 stars.
What a great concept this book has... And that's all it has going for it. Character development... Terrible... We are still meeting characters as the book is winding down, not a way to make the reader care what happens to said character. The chapters... So disjointed... Some start in one city from the pov of one character and stay that way. Some just from city to city or even to different countries, while also jumping character povs. Didn't make much sense. Plot timeline... Horrendous... Pages and pages were wasted on insignificant details while large plot points felt like they were thrown in after the fact.
The more I think about it, this book didn't have to many redeeming qualities. Beamon was an ok character, who was supposed to be, according to the back cover, a maverick. If mouthing off to your boss once makes you a maverick I'd love to see what the author would call some of the people I work with. And going back to my original point about character development, I wanted to like Beamon more, but he wasn't developed properly and I never really connected... He's no John Corey, haha.
Anyway, the only thing that saved this book was the original concept of the story and how it played out... That is all.

Edit: after writing my review I dropped this book back to two stars.

What ever happened to George Guidall?

What ever happened to George Guidall?

Book order: Book 1: The Last Man, Book 2: Kill Shot, Book 3: American Assassin, Book 4: Pursuit of Honor, Book 5: Extreme Measure, Book 6: Protect and Defend, Book 7: Act of Treason, Book 8: Consent To Kill, Book 9: Memorial Day, Book 10: Executive Power, Book 11: Separation of Power, Book 12: The Third Option, Book 13: Transfer of Power, Book 14: Term Limits, Book 15: Order To Kill, with Kyle Millls The Survivor, Book 1:

It's pretty amazing when a writer takes over a franchise for another author and continues the story. Mitch Rapp is a badass who gets things done -- and this crazy story about the possibility of terrorists shutting down the power grid is a fun read... and it's a bit worrisome, as the U.S. grid is in much need to repair and strengthening.

Seriously, Mills must be Flynn reincarnated. Great story, Rapp has not lost his appeal.

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.

An endless stream of dead bodies... and then a happy ending. The underlying story is kind of interesting, but most of all of the book is over-the-top. Early on I was put off by the super genius who was challenged by the simplest chain of events and then his inability to connect the dots. There was some good good guys versus bad guys parts, and some good critical thinking parts, but I think that this story could have been written in an entirely different way and been a whole lot better. Just an okay read.

This book almost deserves a five star except for two things...

Rapp and his team has the ability to completely fool the cartel into thinking Rapp went rogue. And then in another part of the story another bad guy goes into a village where a highly contagious disease was running rampant and nobody from his team even considered the possibility that he went there to attempt to spread the disease and cause a pandemic. Really Kyle, you don't think Rapp and his team are smart enough to even consider that as a possibility. I found myself extremely frustrated throughout the entire book because of this. The entire book was written around solving a mystery that a real CIA officer would have solved in five minutes. I get that this is fiction but I like my fiction to have a feel of realism.

The second thing I did not like was that the premise of the story will be familiar to readers of the series; bad guy from the Middle East trying to destroy America, corrupt politicians in Washington trying to put Kennedy and Rapp in prison for life. Sound familiar?

Having said that...I did give it four stars. I do like Kyles writing style. He injects humor in the books and the nonstop action makes for a good read.

Es un Tony sin figuritas. Poco creible la trama pero divertida.

Male Bodice Ripper to the extreme, and I love it.

Now working unofficially for the CIA, Mitch is confronted with an enemy from his past. Mullah Sayid Halabi, thought dead and buried in a Northern Iraqi cave, has resurfaced. He has 2 goals in life-annihilate the western infidels and get hands on Rapp and torture him to the fringe of death.

Halabi was acquired a bio-weapon that could well accomplish the first, as for the second-we all know Mitch is not going down easy.

The Political Climate written reflects the real world state of affairs. Mills blends The Beltway nonsense and the unstable, infighting ABC agencies, and Congressional buffoons we deal with flawlessly. In another time his writing would make me shake my head and say "no way would that happen". HA! We know now it could!

With Vince Flynn's untimely passing, Kyle Mills took over the series. Five books in I am finally comfortable with his style and handling of the characters that Flynn had me loving. Mills has made Rapp a bit more human, and I adore the sense of humor that the character is showing.

If you love a good thriller, this one is great!

When Vice Flynn passed away. I was so sad, he had been one of my favorite authors. But, Kyle Mills stepped in, and although I have been critical of him before, this time he hit all the marks for me.

Russian President Krupin has brain cancer-and he is pulling out all the stops to keep it a secret. He needs to eliminate anyone who could threaten him because of this illness. Mitch Rapp's old nemesis, now friend, Grisha is one of those in Krupins sight. Krupin also needs a distraction to keep NATO and the Western World at bay while he tries to find a cure. Things start looking erratic in Russia and The CIA head, Irene Kennedy and Mitch Rapp try to figure out what the heck is going on!

This was a a great read, lots of actions and thrills. I have read all the Mitch Rapp books and this one makes my top 5.

Highly recommended if you love a great spy-thriller.

The DOE has hired a consultant to help identify weaknesses in the electric power grid, and our elected officials are too cheap to spend the $5 billion needed to protect it. So, an enterprising soul decides to offer America's doom to its competitors and adversaries, just for the satisfaction of seeing it done, eventually finding one. The culprit has infected the power companies computer systems with malware and his ally has sabotaged critical hardware, plunging the U.S. into darkness. Mitch is asked by the President to leave his haven to help find and punish the responsible parties, who themselves are bunkered down while America burns, planning to run to Mexico. Mitch rescues an unlikely source, who knows but has been unable to share the identity of the culprit with the FBI. The radio broadcaster is a great character in this one, commenting on the nation's collapse.

Kyle Mills has written another quality Mitch Rapp thriller. Russian president Krupin is ill, and when he finds out it could be terminal, he decides to create a legacy. First, he has his new enforcer try to kill his former enforcer, Azarov, who barely escapes from his Costa Rican home, with Rapp's assistance, leaving Azarov's girlfriend clinging to life. Then, Krupin recruits a disgraced military man to lead an attack on the Baltics, to undermine NATO and restore some semblance of Russian glory. Mitch and Azarov go to see one of the Russian oligarchs to gather intelligence only to find themselves fighting an elite division of killers. Irene Kennedy, Mitch & Company, manage to figure out Krupin's game, and after a brief appearance in the war zone, Mitch heads to Russia to help Azarov remove Krupin, which is accomplished by backtracking doctors and patients. Would have been 4 stars, but a few too many leaps of faith and escapes from certain death for my taste.

I liked this Mitch Rapp book better than the first one written by Kyle Mills, The Survivor, which I rated 3.5 stars. Mitch is working in Islamabad to try to thwart extremists as the government and Army are playing hide and seek with its nuclear arsenal. Mitch jets off to South Africa to save his close friend Claudia and her daughter, after being tipped by an unlikely source. Meanwhile, Russian president Krupin is under enormous pressure to restore his country's presence on the world stage and launches an audacious plan, with his personal assassin Grisha Azarov in charge. He is a formidable opponent for Rapp, getting the drop on Rapp's main support, Scott Coleman, with his physical prowess enhanced by PEDs. I am disappointed that Mills dropped this physical advantage of Azarov when the two go head-to-head in an abandoned oil refinery. Good plot and pacing.

3 stars is very generous for this effort, really 2.5 stars. The storyline is reasonably decent: Saudi Arabia's King Faisal, a long-time friend of America, is getting old. A rising, but humbly born man has risen to become Director of Intelligence and is plotting with ISIS to establish the new caliphate when Faisal dies. Mitch Rapp is summoned by the President, and asked to do whatever is necessary, but without any cover at all from the U.S. so Mitch quits the CIA, and cannot even rely on his usual special ops team. Instead, he taps old adversaries, which strains credibility. The Intelligence Director is killing off anyone who knows of his ties to ISIS, and pinning the blame on Mitch, eventually appealing to the U.S. President to bring back an FBI nemesis to capture Mitch. The problem is that Kyle Mills has changed Mitch Rapp's personality: while he is still a remorseless killer, his certainty about all that he does has waned, Irene Kennedy has turned into a marginal player, his #2 has retired, Hurley is dead, and the new supporting characters are weak and highly superficial, most especially Claudia.

Kyle Mills is better than this. Time to rally.

Ex-CIA agent, the deceased Joe Rickman has set up a series of information dumps to destabilize the CIA, especially Irene Kennedy and Mitch Rapp. In the meantime, Pakistan is gearing up to become the first Islamic superpower, and the sneaky head of its intelligence agency (ISI) is working to become the next President. To stop the leaks, Mitch has to enlist the help of fellow assassin Louis Gould, who killed the love of Rapp's life. Lots of the usual mayhem, in exotic locations: Switzerland, Russia, Pakistan, Rome. I am glad that Kyle Mills will continue Vince Flynn's work, but I found his version of Mitch Rapp to be more hard headed. 3.5 stars.

ISIS mastermind and psycho Sayid Halabi was left for dead in a cave in Northern Iraq; however, cockroaches are notoriously difficult to kill. He has two priorities in life: getting even with Mitch Rapp, and returning the world to the Dark Ages. So, he discovers a virulent disease in a remote area and attacks the Doctors without Borders post there to draw in Mitch Rapp and team. Halabi barely escapes with his life, and a disease specialist, whom he tortures to manufacture anthrax. Partnering with a drug cartel, the anthrax is smuggled to the U.S. Meanwhile, dirty politics in Washington by a power-hungry Senator endangers the current political leadership, including Irene Kennedy and Mitch. When Mitch figures out Halabi's real agenda, he goes undercover rogue. Lots of action and intrigue, but still not as good as Vince Flynn.