While in high school, Mitch fell in love with Mary who was a track star. They dated through high school and attended Syracuse together with plans to be married after graduation. Mary was returning from her senior trip on Pan Am Flight 103 when it was brought down by terrorists over Lockerbie, Scotland. Mitch is devastated and vows revenge.

Mitch becomes the youngest recruit in Project Orion which is Irene Kennedy and Thomas Stansfield's off the books effort to fight the new terrorists. Fresh out of college and with no military experience like the other recruits, Mitch still exceeds all expectations, much to the consternation of his mentor Stan Hurley and the delight of Irene Kennedy who personally recruited Mitch for this position.

Mitch's first assignment is to spy on a Turkish national arms dealer in Istanbul. Instead, Mitch seizes the opportunity to assassinate him three days earlier than the plans called for. This causes a conflict between Hurley and Kennedy resulting in Deputy Director Stansfield having to take sides. Hurley and Rapp eventually make peace and work together in Germany to assassinate a German banker who supports the terrorists. Their ultimate plan is to expedite the escape of an American CIA agent who is being held in Beirut by a Syrian terrorist in league with the Russian, Assef Sayyed.

American Assassin is the prequel to all of the Vince Flynn books and provides insight not only to super agent Mitch Rapp's training but his relationship with Hurley, Kennedy, and Stansfield who play prominent roles in all of the books. Although American Assassin has a little less action that readers may expect, it satisfies our need to learn more about the history and the mindset of Mitch Rapp.

This welcome departure in style from Vince Flynn’s two previous novels fortunately lacks the political rhetoric of Extreme Measures or the exploration of interrogation techniques of Pursuit of Honor. Thanks, Mr. Flynn! This is the 11th book in the series and one of the very best— even though we know in advance that Mitch will survive given the story takes place in the past.

--Jerry Solot