Counterterrorism operative Mitch Rapp is back in his 23rd international espionage thriller and offers an interesting twist. In “Capture or Kill,” Don Bentley, the popular series’s new author, turns readers back to 2011 and the raid on Osama bin Laden’s Pakistani compound.
Fans of the hit series created by the late Vince Flynn in 1999 have often wondered what role protagonist Mitch Rapp, a master terrorist hunter, may have played in the real-life capture of bin Laden and readers finally learn the answer. Spoiler alert: It’s not what you think, but with Rapp involved it’s no less exciting.
Rapp is in Pakistan posing as a French businessman with plans to terminate a terrorist-friendly Pakistani businessman codenamed “Fairbanks.” The proposed killing of Fairbanks is intended as a message to the Pakistani government that they must either help the United States track down and eliminate terrorists or suffer the consequences.
Before Rapp’s planned rendezvous with Fairbanks goes down, under his assumed identity, Rapp encounters a high-level Iranian intelligence official and learns of a new Iranian weapon that will threaten the American military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran’s goal is to further destabilize the Middle East by driving a wedge between America and its Muslim allies a decade after 9/11.
CIA Director Irene Kennedy, Rapp’s boss, also receives word, through a back-channel contact associated with Iran’s intelligence service, about the new missile system. She calls on Rapp to abandon his previous assignment with the Pakistani businessman to handle this new situation.
Leave No Man Behind
Rapp’s mission takes another turn when U.S. Army Rangers in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, participating in a CIA operation, are ambushed and their Chinook helicopter is shot down. All the Rangers escape with the help of some Green Berets and Afghan National Army commandos, but Ranger Sgt. Fred Saxton is missing.An operational specialist and field man to the core, Rapp unilaterally makes the decision to go after Saxton despite his other priorities. Once Rapp locates Saxton through some clever machinations involving jihadis and a faux prisoner escape, the ensuing firefight and retreat through a cavernous cave complex and over a treacherous waterfall is worthy of Indiana Jones. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking as both President Joshua Alexander and Kennedy await Rapp’s confirmation on bin Laden’s location in Pakistan.
Between all the hard-hitting action, readers are treated to some behind-the-scenes gamesmanship between Kennedy and a number of others: the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff; a CIA station chief in Afghanistan, who is in over his head when a plan is formulated to rescue the missing Army Ranger; and a Department of Agriculture bureaucrat on loan from the State Department, who makes the mistake of confronting Rapp about his intentions.
Outside America’s bureaucratic brouhahas, Kennedy’s high-level contact with Iranian intelligence has terminal cancer. Fearing for his country’s future if the new missile system is used against American troops, he gamely tries to save his country from certain American retaliation by sharing with Kennedy details of Iran’s new missile system and simultaneously arranging safe passage for his family to America.
A Worthy Successor
Rapp’s creator, Vince Flynn, died of prostate cancer after writing 13 books in the series. Due to the series’s popularity, Flynn’s estate chose to continue Mitch Rapp’s adventures with author Kyle Mills writing nine more books in the series between 2015 and 2023. In 2024, he turned the reins over to Bentley.
“There were a whole lot of things going on at the same time by intelligence officers, CIA officers, in order to set the conditions for that bin Laden raid,” Bentley recalled Flynn sharing with a reader. “I thought that was a really interesting issue or answer. So when I started pressing into that raid more and looking at everything that took place to set the conditions for those SEALs, I knew I had a story on my hands.”
In that same interview, Bentley also noted the reason he set the storyline in 2011. He wanted to fill in the gap between Flynn’s two prequels in the Mitch Rapp series: “American Assassin” (2010) and “Kill Shot” (2012).
Some readers may find the introspective moments of several characters off-putting because it slows the story’s momentum. Likewise, the author sometimes overhypes Rapp’s abilities and talents as an assassin. This seems unnecessary as longtime fans of the character know he is lethal and relentless when hunting his prey. All in all, however, Bentley is to be congratulated on a fine debut novel, and Mitch Rapp fans should know that America’s hero is in great hands.
