Separation of Power (Mitch Rapp #5) by Vince Flynn

Vince Flynn who passed away in 2013 at the age of 47, wrote 13 novels featuring the character Mitch Rapp, a CIA assassin. The series has subsequently been carried on by Kyle Mills with nine books and recently, Don Bentley with so far, two novels.

Separation of Power was the third Mitch Rapp novel by Vince Flynn and was published on 1st October 2001, just after the terror attacks in New York and Washington DC on 11th September 2001, which made Vince Flynn prescient, as one plot strand of the novel involves Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, which Israel has found is on the verge of making “weapons of mass destruction” and which the President of the United States has to deal with, using Mitch Rapp.

However, Separation of Power is a political, as opposed to a techno/military thriller, as the novel commences with the death of the head of the CIA, Thomas Stansfield and is taken up in the main with the confirmation process of his successor, Dr Irene Kennedy. In other words, the machinations of Washington DC is a plot strand. A third plot strand is the resolution of a betrayal in the previous book in the series, The Third Option.

Evident of the political as opposed to the techno/military aspect of the novel, is that unlike most books in this genre, it takes 175 pages to reach the first action scene of the novel.
What made Vince Flynn a very good writer and not just a genre writer, is his well-drawn characters, so that in the end, there is even sympathy for the political characters of Washington DC.

Recommended for those who like thrillers involving politics.

Reviewed by Stuart McMartin
SMSA Member