Memorial Day (Mitch Rapp, #7) in SSG: Spy/Spec-Ops Group

May 03, 2013 Samuel rated it really liked it

THE BIG BANG

"I have become death. Destroyer of worlds".

The atom bomb. Robert Oppenheimer's baby has been a fixture of spy fiction ever since Ian Fleming had SPECTRE send one to Miami in "Thunderball". As a tool to create a mass casualty incident, it has almost no equal, and is a terrorist's wet dream. Unlike biological warfare, which can be stopped and contained, there's no coming back when the plutonium hits critical mass. However, in terms of deployment methods and obtaining one in the first THE BIG BANG

"I have become death. Destroyer of worlds".

The atom bomb. Robert Oppenheimer's baby has been a fixture of spy fiction ever since Ian Fleming had SPECTRE send one to Miami in "Thunderball". As a tool to create a mass casualty incident, it has almost no equal, and is a terrorist's wet dream. Unlike biological warfare, which can be stopped and contained, there's no coming back when the plutonium hits critical mass. However, in terms of deployment methods and obtaining one in the first place....that's thankfully miles more difficult. Do you want to pull off an airburst blast to spread the radiation? Or do you want to use the camouflage of an innocent looking boat to get in close? The crazed extremists of your standard nuclear terrorism novel have a lot of considerations to take into account once they get their hands on the good stuff.
Memorial Day. This is perhaps the book where the founder of the counter-terrorist sub-genre of spy fiction, Vince Flynn, finally started getting noticed. While his previous work had been mostly solid, Memorial Day managed to bring to the table a concept which would be just as compelling as terrorists having the run of the White House. Similar to Frederick Forsyth's Day Of The Jackal in structure, it explores a down to earth scenario where the terrorists have a plan which gives them the best odds of decapitating the American government with a WMD. Now to the review. What would be the biggest obstacle to prevent massive loss of life? The enemy outside? Or the enemy within?

The novel stars in the Caribbean. A pleasure boat Captain gets shanked by his customer who takes the wheel and sets a course for Florida. On a plane into LAX, a Pakistani nuclear scientist with a plan enters the hated house of war and in a Virginian country house...a ISI officer rats them out to Mitch Rapp who was seconds away from shooting him. Knowing that there might be a WMD in bound, he follows the lead given by the ISI man to the Afghanistan Pakistan border. With the help of US Army Rangers, he attacks a village containing two of the masterminds behind the plot. Capturing them and getting intel which confirms the use of a atom bomb, Mitch does one of his renowned interrogations and successfully acquires the name of the target, sending it hours before the container ship the bomb was on docks. Intercepting it, the day seems saved. But too soon. It's revealed there's a second nuclear bomb in place. Rapp realizes this as well. Unfortunately he's hit a snag, due to the Attorney General and his henchwoman out to skewer him and DCI Kennedy for the decisions he made in Afghanistan. Even the President has grown tired of the man who saved his life. But no Politician in DC has made an obstacle which Rapp hasn't overcome. And with the fate of the American government and the lives of two world leaders in the balance on Memorial Day, Rapp isn't going to let anything stop him in the most important assignment he's undertaken.

In terms of plot, Memorial Day is in some ways a superior affair to "Executive Power". While there's slightly less killing, it has a much more well organized plot without the notorious disjointed structure of the previous book. Like the fuse of a firework, it methodically progresses to the big bang, namely the best climax the author every wrote. Settings? Well apart from a brief glimpse at Afghanistan, the story mostly takes place in America. From a classic Flynn insider's look at the nuclear bomb proof Mount Weather facility to a race over the skies of Washington between Mitch Rapp in one of the world's fastest helicopters and the world's deadliest beer cooler, the author continues to lets us take a look behind the curtain and would probably happen if the occupants of the corridors of power were faced with the possibility of being blown away. As for the research, this book is a particular standout, even by the standards of the series. Hell, the author even made an action scene remarkably similar to the Operation Neptune Spear which occurred years later. Flynn, like Forsyth in the day of the Jackal mapped out the worst case scenario which gives the antagonists the best chance of success. Little details like how to acquire the nuke, take advantage of certain failures in border control measures and decide upon what would be the most devastating deployment method to target Washington are the sort of thing which made Flynn the kind of American spy fiction when he was alive. Well thought out and yet down to earth. It's the sort of thing you hope those in power have read and prepared for.

Now for the characters. First Mitch. This is the book where he finally comes into his own as a character. I've always considered him one of the potential inspirations for Jack Bauer, and this is the book where it's most apparent. From deftly managing the hunt for the terrorists, fending off two ravenous bureaucrats and keeping his cool in the ultimate ticking time bomb scenario, Rapp is the sort of person you hope exists, a best case scenario in the form of a spy fiction character. Competent, fanatical at doing his job and willing to do whatever it takes to save lives, the only difference between he and Jack Bauer is the fact that Rapp has the superior political protection and patrons with the clout to smack down the legion of enemies he's built up in the corridors of power.
Next, we have the enemy within. Meet the double-act of Attorney General Stokes and Peggy Stealey. One's a glory hound whose bad decisions begin to pile up and become a hindrance to the effort at stopping the nuclear weapon, while the other makes the catastrophic decision of trying to destroy Mitch Rapp out of ideological reasons. Like with Sherman Baxter in Transfer Of Power, Flynn uses them to demonstrate what happens when the professionals have to contend with a top brass who dabble in areas they should stay clear of. And in typical fashion, Mitch brings amateur hour to a smashing close.
Finally, we have the main bad guy. After Jabril from Executive Power, Flynn returned to the irredeemable bad guy. But there's a good reason for this. Meet Mustafa al-Yamani. A thinly disguised stand-in for Osama Bin Laden, he's decided to go for the jugular in the fight with the great satan. Unlike Bin Laden who could only manage to decentralize his organization in order to make it a constant thorn in the side of the West, with a nuclear Weapon, al-Yamani can do what his real life inspiration never could Go for the jugular. Flynn uses him to illustrate a simple lesson. Non state actors with nuclear weapons are a nightmare, something that has become relevant with Daesh reportedly acquiring chemical weapons and using them on the Kurds.

So overall, my verdict on Memorial Day? A great counter-terrorist thriller on the classic worst case scenario. Well structured and astoundingly well researched it is one of the few novels which deals expertly with its subject matter without going over the top, or understating the threat. In the next review, I'll be dealing with Flynn's magnum opus, his "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Consent to kill.

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