Book Review: Red War: (Mitch Rapp Series #17)

 

Red War is the 17th novel in the Mitch Rapp series. It was published in 2018 and is the fourth novel in the series at least partially written by Kyle Mills when he took over the series after Vince Flynn's death in 2013. 

The novel starts out with the fictional Russian President, Krupin, ordering a hit on Grisha Azarov in Costa Rica. From there, the plot of the book involves an increasingly unstable Krupin planning an attack on the Baltic countries that are members of NATO. The  CIA discovers Krupin has terminal brain cancer and sends Rapp (along with Azarov) on a mission to Russia.

The book definitely includes some real-world elements, such as mentioning Russia's invasion of Crimea (and even foreshadowing (a bit) the full invasion of Ukraine by Russia), the speculation that Putin is ill, etc. It also touches on Russia's various disinformation campaigns, including those that are designed to turn Americans against each other.

The book is just over 350 pages and reads like the other books in the series. So, if you read quickly you can probably finish it in a couple of days (or less). While it is hard to predict what direction Flynn would have taken the series had he lived, I do think Mills has now captured the same tone and pacing that Flynn used so that if Flynn would have told the same story, this feels like how he would write it. While I do not think it was quite as good as the last novel in the series, Enemy of the State, it is still very good, with a nice blend of action and setup, and is definitely worth the read.