Framing the Dialogue

Posts Tagged ‘cia’

The Survivor

survivorIt was a very sad day when I learned of the passing of Vince Flynn. He lost his fight with cancer and I had his newest novel on my wish list for a very long time.  I was heartened when I found out that there would be another Mitch Rapp novel!

In The Survivor author Kyle Mills has Rapp and the CIA racing against time when one of their own betrays them. This may be the most severe threat to the Agency has ever had and the man behind it is dead.  Rapp needs to not only stop the damage but he must also beat an unknown enemy to discover the source.  His failure would have world-wide repercussions in the world and as always he was fighting enemies at home.

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Civilian Warriors

 “So now I’m done keeping quiet.  What’s been said before is only half the story – and I won’t sit idly by while the bureaucrats go after me so that everyone else can just go back to business as usual.  The true history of Blackwater is exhilarating, rewarding, exasperating, and tragic.  It’s the story of men taking bullets to protect the men who take all the credit, a tale of patriots whose names became known only when lawyers and politicians needed to blame somebody for something.  Our critics have spoken.  Now it’s my turn.”

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Improbable

improbableImagine what a gambling addict would do with the ability to not only see the future, but affect it.  Improbable in a thriller by Adam Fawer in which the United States government, Korean intelligence, KGB, Russian mobsters and others mix in a petri dish of intrigue and death.  The story revolves around two brothers, one a schizophrenic and the other an epileptic as they wander their psyche’s in this world and the “everywhen.”  Their tale is intertwined with a rogue CIA agent who acts as both a protector and a pawn in the world of Improbable.

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Red Sparrow

red sparrowWith cover art reminiscent of a James Bond opening credits, Red Sparrow brings back an American “enemy” from the Cold War.  Instead of the USSR the spy game written by Jason Matthews pits American assets against the new Russia which is sort of like the old Soviet Union.  Matthews brings reality, or a least as much as he can divulge, as a former member of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service.

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Moscow Club

moscow clubI am not sure why a book originally published in 1991 was one of the offerings at our airport. I was early picking up my wife last Saturday night and because of security there was nowhere to really go within the facility as most of the stores are on the other side of the security section. I had finished the book that I brought and was faced with an hour or so left to wait so I went to the only open venue and paid full price for a paperback. Author Joseph Finder included an introduction in 2013 to set the tone of the novel;

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The Last Man

“Fine, you stubborn fool. Rapp has already warned you what he would do to you if you stabbed him in the back again…Does he strike you as a man who doesn’t follow through on his threats?’…His friend had turned into a stubborn old fool who thought the Americans lacked the resolve to play this nasty game at his ruthless level. For the average American he had a point, but Mitch Rapp was in no way average…’If you aren’t afraid of Mr. Rapp then you need to have your head examined.”

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Don’t Piss On My Leg…

Is Petraeus carrying the ball for Obama?

I’m imagining a high school kid sitting in the principal’s outer office waiting for his sure to be angry parents to arrive.  They were summoned by the school because of the student’s misdeed.  The tiny little brain is churning, trying desperately to come up with an excuse; any reason to wiggle out of this tough spot; as if this couldn’t be helped; as if it wasn’t their fault.  What kind of a whopper would they come up with?

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Kill Shot

Vince Flynn is back.  Mitch Rapp is back.  All is good except that I flew through Rapp’s latest adventures and now have to wait another year for the next installment.  First of all best wishes to Mr. Flynn and continued healthier and healthier years ahead.  Second of all the fight with cancer did nothing to his writing skill.  In Kill Shot Flynn takes us back to the early days after Rapp was first unleashed on the ugly, evil terrorists that plague the world.  This battle takes place in Paris (France not Ohio) when Rapp get’s a not so nice surprise putting his life at risk.  We get a closer look at the development of the relationship between Rapp, Kennedy, Stansfield, and Hurley and their secret “division” of the CIA.  I thoroughly enjoy this peak back and hope that we are treated to more of the younger Rapp in future novels.

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American Assassin

I don’t know how author Vince Flynndoes it, I just hope that he does it for a very very long time.  In his latest Mitch Rapp novel Flynn takes us back to the beginning of Rapp’s “career” navigating in the World’s sleazy underworld of terrorists, mobsters, gun dealers, corrupt bankers, and crocked politicians.  After intense training, super hero Mitch Rapp becomes an American Assassin as he brings the fight to our enemies.  We get to hate the Russians and Islamic Extremists in the same book.  Cocky and brash would be appropriate words to describe Rapp, but you would have to add highly successful to the list of the CIA’s covert operative.  Covert may not be the proper term as there is no direct, official connection between Rapp’s group and the CIA. 

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The Bourne Objective

Combine two rogue super spies, Russian spys, the Russian mob, the CIA, Homeland Security, Mexican drug runners, Colombian drug runners, an all-knowing Balinese woman, alchemy, and an ultra-secret society that wants to control the world and you have the framework for Eric Van Lustbader’snew “Bourne” novel.

The Bourne Objective contains the action you’d expect from the Bourne series, but less of the unpredictability of the original novels.  The hero really doesn’t have to be Jason Bourne anymore, but I guess the Bourne and Ludlum names sell more books. 

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