My daughter works in the marketing department at Simon & Shuster and had a change to meet the author in the office. Got me a signed copy of this book, pretty cool as I am a pretty big fan. This the story behind Mitch Rapp, the key character in most of Flynn's books. From that standpoint it was pretty interesting, but if you have read any of the other books, Mitch's back-story is well known. The story really revolves around his recruitment and first operations, in Europe and the Middle East. The operations part is really the meat here and what I enjoyed the most. If I say Flynn is "apolitical" I am pretty sure I am going to get an argument, but the general theme of his books is that there are really bad people out there in the world, bent on harming the USA. Flynn takes the opportunity to cut through all the politics and let loose operatives that don't ask for permission to handle these folks. I guess it is kind of like "Dexter joins the CIA". The only problem I really had with this book, specifically, is that it "had to be written". Flynn does build his stories around historical events and really sets the scene from the perspective of being on the ground in the locations he chooses events to play out. A quick easy read and I highly recommend if you are interested in this sort of thing.