Memorial Day

Rating:
Summary: strong action thriller
Review: Intel learns that countries harboring terrorists are transferring their stock and bonds into gold while at a top-secret installation a Pakistani terrorist is being interrogated by CIA black ops agent Mitch Rapp. Intel finds out that Al Qaeda is preparing to strike at the United States, making the World Trade Towers destruction seem like a child destroying a toy. Mitch and a group of commandos raid a small Pakistani mountain town where they find proof that Al Qaeda is getting ready to attack America.

Going through the documents and the computer disks, Mitch and other operatives believe that the terrorist group is trying to smuggle a nuclear bomb into the United States. Through diligent effort and good investigative work, they are able to locate the bomb which was being shipped into the country by boat. Further Intel lead Mitch to believe that a second bomb has already been smuggled into the country and it is set to go off at the White House festivities on Memorial Day if Mitch can't locate it in time.

Vince Flynn is one of the best writers of action thrillers on the world scene today. His protagonist is a true patriot, willing to get his hands dirty if it means saving innocent lives. He can't stand or deal with the politics that get in the way of catching terrorists and believes the legal rights belonging to ordinary people should be suspended for active terrorists. Readers won't know until the last paragraph if the hero finds the nuclear bomb and is able to prevent it from going off. MEMORIAL DAY is more frightening than a horror tale because the premise of the story is all too plausible.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Politically Incorrect and SUPER-relevant thriller of ideas
Review: Remember Lt. Colonel West who held a gun to an Iraqi terrorist's head in order to get time sensitive information to save his men's lives? If you agreed with his actions and were outraged by the attempt to court martial him and deny him his pension, you'll love MEMORIAL DAY!

Mitch Rapp, Vince Flynn's hero, and he IS a hero, is a CIA assassin, who both tortures and assassinates Islamofascistic terrorists in order to thwart a pending Al-Queda nuclear attack on the U.S.

Mitch Rapp is the very opposite of the *seven idiots who almost lost us the war,* and shamed us all. He knows the death-worshipping, life-hating, fanatical nature of the enemy and although he is political incorrectness personified, I have no problem with his actions.

Mitch's nemesis, Valerie Jones, the President's Chief of Staff (think Judy Davis), and a new villainness, the beautiful, super-ambitious Peggy Stealey, a deputy asst. attorney general who loathes and wants to gut the Patriot Act keep getting in the way of getting the job done. Tony Jackson, the *mouth of the south* is hired as an attorney by an Islamofascist terrorist who cannily became an American citizen and keeps demanding his rights. (Can you immediately revoke someone's citizenship if he's proved to be a terrorist? I hope so).

Because we as a society are wrestling with issues of torture, assassination, rights, and how we deal with this enemy without becoming like them or abandoning our principles, MEMORIAL DAY is my favorite of all the thrillers I've recently read. I found it more persuasive and interesting than all the blather of the chattering classes on cable TV.

I'll be rereading MEMORIAL DAY again.

Rating:
Summary: How to Fight Terrorism
Review: The star character of Memorial Day is Mitch Rapp. He is a dedicated, determined, independent, bold, and sometimes ruthless intelligence agent. Rapp is willing to kill terrorists in order to get other terrorists to talk and thus save the lives of tens or even hundreds of thousands of his fellow countrymen. It is not always best for his superiors to have complete knowledge of his activities.

Memorial Day is an intriguing story of reaction to information of a pending nuclear attack on the United States. The author goes behind the scenes to show the workings and hindrances of government agencies in the battle against terrorists as well as the political impact on decision-making,

The short chapters give many opportunities to take a break from reading, but this is difficult as you anticipate the further actions in facing imminent danger.

I only found slow reading with the detailed military action depicted in the early chapters of the book.

It is difficult to believe that the heroics of a Mitch Rapp could be a realistic expectation within our government, but our lives may well depend on it.