Executive Power by Vince Flynn

• Narrator: Armand Schultz – Just OK
• Genre: Espionage, Thriller
• Writing: Good
• Story: Good
• Time: 4 hours 40 minutes

First, I should say that my view of this audio book is severely tainted because it’s abridged.  I couldn’t find an unabridged edition.  I suppose publishers think that long audio books are too long for the attention span of an average American.  Perhaps they’re right, but I hate abridged books.  I don’t care if it takes me a month to finish a good audio book – just tell me the whole story.  From what little I heard of the story, I think that the unabridged version would be quite good.

This is my second Vince Flynn book and the second time I’ve read about Mitch Rapp, Vince Flynn’s CIA superhero.  My first Vince Flynn book was Consent To Kill, which was very enjoyable.  Rapp isn’t one of those heros that has super-human skills, other than the fact he narrowly escapes from being killed frequently.  His power comes from having saved the President of the United States several times and having kept Americans relatively holocaust free during his many years of service.  For that, he gets to pretty much boss the President around and do what he feels is the right thing for his country.  Yeah, silly, but it works.  We all want to be like Luke Skywalker, but we all want guys like Vince Flynn covering our backs.

I like the story – Israeli, Palestinian, Middle-Eastern destruction and terrorism have taken over for the cold war.  The abridged book skips all the detail and, therefore, the intricacies of the story and its real flavor, though.

I wouldn’t hesitate to read or listen to an unabridged version of this book.  Just don’t bother with the Reader’s Digest edition.