Book Review: Memorial Day: (Mitch Rapp Series Book 7 Chronological Order; Book 5 Publication Order)

 

At the time it was written, this was the fifth novel in the Mitch Rapp series of spy/assassin novels by Vince Flynn. It is the seventh book if you read the series chronologically, and the second book in the series written after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. While the prior novel, Executive Power, did mention the 9/11 attacks, this was the first novel in which Flynn built the storyline around the fallout from the attacks. The plot of this book is that what was left of Al Qaeda planned another attack using a cell located in the United States to launch another attack on the country, this time using a nuclear bomb. Rapp discovers the plot when he is helping clear out a stronghold in Pakistan and then has to return to the US to attempt to foil the plot. 

The book is fairly fast-paced with an engaging story. Flynn does introduce a couple of new characters in this novel, the most prominent of which is Peggy Stealey, who is a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in charge of Counterterrorism, who, of course, butts heads with Rapp, and her boss, the Attorney General, Martin Stokes, who is angling to replace the Vice President on the ticket. Mitch's wife, Anna, is mostly absent during the events of this book, essentially written out as visiting her family in Wisconsin for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.  

In my opinion, this was the best book in the series (up to that point), and I think told a much more realistic story than Flynn's prior novels did (in which Iraq was made out to be a much larger threat than it really was). Of course, the plot and the characters were made up (he even refrained from using the names of the real Al Qaeda leadership), but Flynn again blended elements of real life into his story, including the controversy over whether torture (or the threat of it) should be used to interrogate terrorists at a time when the "enhanced interrogation techniques" used in real life were coming to light. Flynn does, despite the fact that he himself was a conservative, remain mostly apolitical in the storytelling and includes characters from both sides of the political spectrum, writing Rapp to pretty much despise all politicians and especially their hangers-on.  The story in the book is mostly self-contained, but there are definitely elements in the book that could be brought into the plots of the subsequent books. I started reading the books in chronological order, so this is the farthest in the timeline I have gotten, so I am not sure how much from this book will carry over into the other books, but it definitely seems like Flynn was setting some things up in this book that will pay off down the line. It is definitely worth reading if you liked the prior novels in the series.