Book Review: Separation of Power: (Mitch Rapp Series Book 5 Chronological Order; Book 3 Publication Order)

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from the prior novel, The Third Option, but does not contain major giveaways from this book+++

Separation of Power is set a few weeks after the events of The Third Option, with Mitch having saved Anna from the hitmen hired by Cameron to take him out, Stanfield having died of cancer, and Irene Kenndy set to be nominated for director of the CIA. Mitch wants out of the spy life, but before he retires he wants to figure out who hired Cameron to kill him, which means a trip to Italy to track down Donatella, the former model turned spy who took Cameron out. Further complicating things is Mitch's plan to propose to Anna in Italy after he handles some business, that he of course cannot tell her about. That storyline heavily involves Senator Clark, the Arizona Republican (who is basically the main antagonist of the book) who is using the Democratic Congressman Rudin (who hates Kennedy and the CIA in general) to derail Kennedy's nomination without getting his own hands dirty.

The other major plotline of the novel is that the US finds out that Iraq is weeks away from developing three functional nuclear weapons hidden in a bunker under a hospital, requiring President Hayes, the CIA, and the Military to make a decision about how to prevent Saddam Hussein from finishing them.  As you would expect, both storylines intertwine toward the end of the book.

Overall, the book is a very good mix of spy action and political intrigue. The tone is very similar to the novels Transfer of Power and The Third Option, which were the first two books featuring Rapp that Vince Flynn wrote back in the late 1990s. The political storyline has a bit of a "House of Cards" feel to it, and the stuff directly involving Rapp has a very "24" feel to it. It also seems that members of George W. Bush's administration were reading this as a non-fiction book because much of the justification they used for invading Iraq a year or so after this was published seemed like it was taken directly from the pages of the book. That said, it is a good work of spy-thriller fiction with a story that flows very well and keeps readers engaged throughout. The book is just over 350 pages but reads pretty quickly, so if you are a relatively fast reader it can easily be finished in a few days. So, if you like spy novels and liked the books Transfer of Power and The Third Option (and American Assassin and Kill Shot if you are reading the books in chronological order), this is definitely worth reading.