Publisher's Weekly Review
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. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Second-novelist Flynn (Term Limits, 1998) returns, this time with an overstuffed political thriller about bad guys kidnaping the White House. With the President in it'though at first he's presumed safe, hunkered down in his custom-built bunker, having been spirited there just in time by the Secret Service. The main meanie is one Rafique Aziz, zealot, all-around nutcase, and valued henchman of Saddam Hussein. Rotten to the core understates it for Aziz. He won't even let his hostages go to the bathroom. He has over a hundred of them, and the deal is the US either complies with his demands'(1) release Iraq's frozen assets, (2) end the onerous Iraqi blockade, and (3) support a free and autonomous Palestinian state now!'or he shoots a hostage an hour. To demonstrate his bona fides, he dispatches a couple on national TV. It's a crisis that cries out for Mitch Rapp, the CIA's top counterintelligence operative, ``the most efficient and lethal killer in the modern era of the Agency.'' Mitch, code name Iron Man, who lost his high- school sweetheart in Pan Am flight 103 and has been relentlessly vengeful ever since, gains access to the White House. Bloody-minded Aziz booby-traps everything in sight. Meanwhile, power has now been transferred to the Vice President, who proves himself a double-dealing sneak and errant coward. Mitch rescues a female hostage and falls in love. A lot of people get their heads blown off by MP-5 submachine guns. When at last the President is saved, he tells Mitch and his mates how much the country owes them. The reply: ``I was just doing my duty.'' But where is the dastardly Aziz? Unfortunately, it takes an epilogue to do him in. The prose is pedestrian, the plotting predictable, the characters comic strip, and the end long in coming. (Author tour)
Booklist Review
Since the dawn of the cold war, the idea of the U.S. being attacked by foreign terrorists has loomed as a constant threat, but since the World Trade Center bombing, it has become a chilling reality. Here, that reality is vaulted to a nightmarish new level when Arab terrorists invade Washington, D.C., and seize control of the White House. Chaos ensues as key administration personnel--some competent, most inept--vie to secure the release of more than 100 White House hostages, including the president himself. Heading up the CIA's Counterterrorism Center is Irene Kennedy, deft at penetrating the tangled terrorist psyche. Her top recruit is Mitch Rapp, a loner whose specialty is tracking down the most vicious terrorists and either kidnapping or assassinating them--unofficially, of course. His most recent nabbing proves to be a fount of knowledge, providing otherwise unattainable enemy intelligence. The question remains whether Mitch can use what he's learned before the crazed leader of the White House assault takes more casualties. In his second novel, following Term Limits (1998), Flynn delivers a riveting espionage thriller that will satisfy action fans who like Chuck Logan but won't alienate readers who want a little nuance with their suspense. --Mary Frances Wilkens
Library Journal Review
When terrorists crash White House security, the President is swept away to an isolated underground bunker, and the Vice President suddenly finds himself in charge. From the author of the best-selling Term Limits. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.