Protect and Defend

September 24, 2007
After taking care of a loose end from Act of Treason
(2006), Mitch Rapp looks into the destruction of Iran's secret nuclear weapons facility in bestseller's Flynn's predictable eighth thriller to feature the counterterrorism agent. Given the absence of any indication of either a U.S. or an Israeli air strike, Rapp takes the opportunity to persuade the U.S. administration to plot an operation to destabilize the fanatical Iranian regime by having an Iranian dissident group claim responsibility for what he suspects was an inside job by an Israeli spy. When the Iranian government sinks one of its own ships and blames the U.S., Rapp and CIA chief Irene Kennedy travel to Iraq to try to defuse the crisis, only to fall victim to an ambush (reminiscent of one in Tom Clancy's A Clear and Present Danger
) that results in Kennedy's abduction. Rapp races the clock to rescue his boss before she's tortured into revealing what she knows. Despite a backstory replete with personal loss, Rapp comes across as a one-dimensional killing machine, willing to do whatever needs doing to complete the mission.

October 1, 2007
Despite Guidall's best efforts, Flynn's words are so flat and his characters and plot so contrived and mechanical that it's hard to imagine who might actually enjoy this listening chore. The subject is certainly timely: what should the U.S. government do to defuse the Iranian nuclear program? Flynn's solution is to have top secret counterterrorism expert Mitch Rapp try to destabilize the Iranian government-a plan which goes wrong when his boss, CIA chief Irene Kennedy, is kidnapped. Guidall does manage to catch some of the sadness in Rapp's heart as he thinks about the loss of his family in a previous novel. But Guidall can't rewrite Flynn's words-very few of which give Rapp any semblance of human feeling. Simultaneous release with the Atria hardcover (Reviews, Sept. 24).