Transfer of Power

June 28, 1999
In this long political thriller staged almost entirely around a hostage standoff, Flynn makes maximum use of his White House setting, and mixes in a spicy broth of brutal terrorists, heroic commandos and enough secret agent hijinks to keep the confrontation bubbling until its flag-raising end. The villains are led by Rafique Aziz, a notorious Arab terrorist whose band of thugs takes over the White House by finding a weak point in American politics: they pose as wealthy campaign contributors and are welcomed through the front door. President Robert Hayes manages to escape to his bunker moments before the bloodbath, but religious zealot Aziz takes almost 100 hostages, seals off the White House and begins making demands, of which large sums of cash are just the beginning. With the president incommunicado and weak-willed yet power hungry Vice President Sherman Baxter in charge, the Pentagon and the CIA resort to their secret weapon: commando extraordinaire Mitch Rapp. After sneaking into the bowels of the Executive Mansion through an air duct, Rapp steadily disrupts the terrorists' well-laid plans. He finally calls in reinforcements when Aziz begins drilling into the president's bunker. It's a long haul to the finish, but Flynn (Term Limits) compensates for some stereotyping by creating dynamic tension between the main players, especially between military leaders and politicians, and between Rapp and Aziz. His description of the White House is impressive; readers will wonder if the secret passageways, hidden rooms and clever deception devices that help load this story with seemingly endless intrigue, really exist. Agent, Sloan Harris. 15-city author tour.

TRANSFER OF POWER is a classic thriller, with CIA operative extraordinaire Mitch Rapp at its center. When terrorists capture the White House and President Hayes, Rapp must sneak in, figure out what is happening, and lead the assault to rescue the president. Nick Sullivan's reading is marvelous. Although his style is quite different from George Guidall's in EXECUTIVE ACTION, the book's sequel, Sullivan picks up speed, emotion, and intensity as events unfold. Sullivan is especially effective portraying key characters other than Rapp, including Vice President Baxter, who cares more about succeeding the president than saving him, and his slimy chief of staff, whose personality Sullivan nails. Although this is fiction, the story's premise--that the leader of the terrorists was backed by Saddam Hussein--has, to a large extent, been superseded by current events. D.J.S. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine