Vince Flynn

Author profile

born

April 06, 1966 in St. Paul, Minnesota, The United States

gender

male

website

http://www.vinceflynn.com/

genre

Mystery & Thrillers

influences

Ernest Hemingway, Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, J.R.R. Tolkien, Gore Vida ...more

About this author

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The Vince Flynn Story

The fifth of seven children, Vince Flynn was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1966. He graduated from the St. Thomas Academy in 1984, and the University of St. Thomas with a degree in economics in 1988. After college he went to work for Kraft General Foods where he was an account and sales marketing specialist. In 1990 he left Kraft to accept an aviation candidate slot with the United States Marine Corps. One week before leaving for Officers Candidate School, he was medically disqualified from the Marine Aviation Program, due to several concussions and convulsive seizures he suffered growing up. While trying to obtain a medical waiver for his condition, he started thinking about writing a book. This was a very unusual ch...more The Vince Flynn Story

The fifth of seven children, Vince Flynn was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1966. He graduated from the St. Thomas Academy in 1984, and the University of St. Thomas with a degree in economics in 1988. After college he went to work for Kraft General Foods where he was an account and sales marketing specialist. In 1990 he left Kraft to accept an aviation candidate slot with the United States Marine Corps. One week before leaving for Officers Candidate School, he was medically disqualified from the Marine Aviation Program, due to several concussions and convulsive seizures he suffered growing up. While trying to obtain a medical waiver for his condition, he started thinking about writing a book. This was a very unusual choice for Flynn since he had been diagnosed with dyslexia in grade school and had struggled with reading and writing all his life.

Having been stymied by the Marine Corps, Flynn returned to the nine-to-five grind and took a job with United Properties, a commercial real estate company in the Twin Cities. During his spare time he worked on an idea he had for a book. After two years with United Properties he decided to take a big gamble. He quit his job, moved to Colorado, and began working full time on what would eventually become Term Limits . Like many struggling artists before him, he was a bartender at night and wrote during the day. Five years and more than sixty rejection letters later he took the unusual step of self-publishing his first novel. The book went to number one in the Twin Cities, and within a week had a new agent and two-book deal with Pocket Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint.

Term Limits hit the New York Times bestseller list in paperback and started a trend for all of Flynn's novels. Since then, his books have become perennial bestsellers in both paperback and hardcover, and he has become known for his research and prescient warnings about the rise of Islamic Radical Fundamentalism and terrorism. Read by current and former presidents, foreign heads of state, and intelligence professionals around the world, Flynn's novels are taken so seriously one high-ranking CIA official told his people, “I want you to read Flynn's books and start thinking about how we can more effectively wage this war on terror.”

October 2007 marked another milestone in Flynn’s career when his ninth political thriller, Protect and Defend, became a #1 New York Times bestseller. A few months later, CBS Films optioned the rights for Flynn’s Mitch Rapp character with the intention of creating a character-based, action-thriller movie franchise. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who previously launched the Harry Potter and Matrix films as head of production at Warner Bros., and Nick Wechsler (We Own the Night, Reservation Road) will produce the films.

Flynn lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and three children.

Works by Flynn include Transfer of Power, The Third Option, Separation of Power , Executive Power , Memorial Day, Consent to Kill, Act of Treason, and Extreme Measures.
-- Atria Books (2008)

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Books by Vince Flynn

Average rating: 4.20 · 83,368 ratings · 5,006 reviews · 26 distinct works

	Act Of Treason (Mitch Rapp, #7) 4.20 avg rating — 8,457 ratings — published 2006 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Term Limits 4.18 avg rating — 8,064 ratings — published 1997 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Memorial Day (Mitch Rapp, #5) 4.22 avg rating — 7,489 ratings — published 2004 — 25 editions	My rating:
	Transfer of Power (Mitch Rapp, #1) 4.22 avg rating — 7,586 ratings — published 1999 — 29 editions	My rating:
	Consent To Kill (Mitch Rapp, #6) 4.24 avg rating — 7,291 ratings — published 2005 — 2 editions	My rating:
	The Third Option (Mitch Rapp, #2) 4.16 avg rating — 7,031 ratings — published 2000 — 23 editions	My rating:
	Separation Of Power (Mitch Rapp, #3) 4.19 avg rating — 6,416 ratings — published 2001 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Extreme Measures (Mitch Rapp, #9) 4.21 avg rating — 6,193 ratings — published 2008 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Executive Power (Mitch Rapp, #4) 4.19 avg rating — 6,134 ratings — published 2003 — 22 editions	My rating:
	Protect And Defend (Mitch Rapp, #8) 4.18 avg rating — 5,480 ratings — published 2007 — 2 editions	My rating:

More books by Vince Flynn…

Series by Vince Flynn

Mitch Rapp (12 books)
by Vince Flynn

4.20 avg rating — 75,051 ratings

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Interviews

October 2009, Vince Flynn
" Quick Start SS: How would you describe your life in only 8 words? VF: I'm a very blessed and lucky man. SS: What is your motto or maxim? VF: Suck it up! What Readers want to know... SS: How would you describe perfect happiness? VF: When I'm relaxing..." ...More

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Quotes by Vince Flynn

“I have a history of disregarding orders. - Mitch Rapp”
― Vince Flynn

26 people liked it

“People who think God is on their side are capable of the most inhumane acts. (Petrov)”
― Vince Flynn, Consent To Kill

14 people liked it

“People, especially successful people, are habitual creatures. They're organized. This makes them productive - Gus Mitchell”
― Vince Flynn, Term Limits

10 people liked it

See all Vince Flynn's quotes »

Polls

Which author would you be interested in reading for a group read?

James Rollins

5 votes 26.3%

Stieg Larsson

3 votes 15.8%

Steve Alten

3 votes 15.8%

Brad Thor

2 votes 10.5%

Matthew Reilly

2 votes 10.5%

Clive Cussler

2 votes 10.5%

Vince Flynn

1 vote 5.3%

Steve Berry

1 vote 5.3%

Dan Brown

0 votes 0.0%

Michael Crichton

0 votes 0.0%

19 total votes

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Vince Flynn

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Vince's Fans (693)

Vince Flynn

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by Vince Flynn

Series by Vince Flynn

Upcoming Events

Interviews

Quotes by Vince Flynn

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add New
Videos

combine editions
Books by Vince Flynn