Book Review: Enemy of the State: (Mitch Rapp Series #16)

 

This is the 16th book in the prolific series of spy/assassin novels created by Vince Flynn and continued by Kyle Mills after Flynn's death in 2013. The novel was published in 2017 and was a continuation of the prior novels, The Last Man, The Survivor, and Order to Kill. The book is just under 400 pages and like Flynn's novels and the two novels in the series that Mills at least partially wrote, it reads fairly quickly.

This book continues the storyline that was set in Saudi Arabia during the last book. We find out that the nephew of the ailing Saudi king is discovered to be funding ISIS and Rapp puts together a team to go after him. Like Flynn did in his books, Mills ties the storyline into the real world. Specifically, he ties the story to the evidence that the Saudi government at least knew a lot more about the 9/11 attacks than they let on, and at worst had a hand in the planning of it, and the US government covered it up (and continues to do so) because of our dependence on oil. The book brings back many characters from the prior novels, and yet again, sets Rapp's life on a new course.

Overall, the book is very good. It seems like with this book, Mills really found the balance between writing the story as Vince Flynn would have likely done so, yet making it his own. The prior novel, Order to Kill, felt a bit off to me, and not like a book that Flynn himself would have written. This book, however, feels like, had Vince Flynn decided to write this story, this is how he would have done it.