Vince Flynn, Right Wing Propagandist

I love reading all kinds of books. Two of my favorite types of books is anything having to do with murder mysteries or covert military action. Both of those kinds of books tend to be action packed and they have a crescendo leading up to the final "showdown" so to speak at the end. About 5 years ago or so someone recommended the author Vince Flynn to me and so I decided to pick up one of his books and see if I like it.

Turns out I didn't like it, I LOVED it. His books revolve around this central character by the name of Mitch Rapp who is a sort of CIA superman neanderthal but who also has a brilliant mind when it comes to tactics. The first few books I read of Flynn's had Rapp all over the world tracking down bad guys and dispatching them with extreme prejudice in almost impossible conditions. And he also found the time to rescue POTUS from an assault on the White House. And the thing about it was that Flynn writes in a style that basically keeps you on the edge of your seat from chapter to chapter. I practically couldn't put these books down because he kept the action and suspense going all through out the book. You would be hard pressed to find a boring chapter.

But then something started to shift in his writing. In his last two books all of a sudden you saw an escalation in what is an obvious attempt to spread real life right wing propaganda in his books. It was a little off putting in his last book, "Term Limits" when he used Rapp basically as a sort of Dick Cheney stand in to try to justify torture. Now don't get me wrong, Mitch Rapp tortured a bunch of folks in all of his previous books as well as assassinating more than a few. But it wasn't some big deal to me because hell its a book, its supposed to be entertaining, not necessarily reflect reality. But I just finished his newest book "Pursuit of Honor" and its obvious that the guy is now basically trying to forcefeed a right wing ideology in an otherwise great book.

Check out the issues he manages to weave into a book that didn't require any of it. He, through Irene Kennedy who is the CIA director in most of his books, gives a spirited defense of Joe McCarthy. He also has Kennedy, proclaim that torture is 100% effective. He also has a supposed Democrat Senator, a Senator Lonsdale, who has recently undergone a "transformation" after someone close to her was killed by a terrorist, compare incredulously a few of her fellow Democratic Senators complaining about torturing terrorist to them honoring an OB/Gyn who performed abortions. He has Rapp, in a Senate hearing no less, compare what he did to terrorists to a Senator Ogden supposed push for late term abortion because she was pushing for an investigation of his activities. And here is the kicker, this new Senator who supposedly would abort fetuses with her own teeth if ever given a chance, bears a striking likeness in the way he describes her to real life Senator Barbara Boxer. Not only does she hail from California, but she also admonishes Rapp for referring to her as Ma'am. Oh and did I mention that the term "limousine liberal" was used in the book as well as that bullshit line about how they supposedly all convert to right wingers just as soon as they get mugged? Seriously, its in there.

The great tragedy is that you could strip out the whole chapters where all of that bullshit occurred and you would have a great book. I mean as much as that bullshit pissed me off I still wanted to read the book all the way through and see what happened and if Rapp would once again save the day. But here is the deal, I have reached my limit with this guy. I do love his writing style and the plot lines are amazing, but if I wanted to hear that extra crap I would just tune into FoxNews each day. I read most of my books to get away from that kind of bullshit, not to have it thrown in my face. Unless and until he gets back to just writing about the action and staying away from the politics I don't think I will be reading any more of his books. There is only so much I can overlook.