I’ve always wondered about the deep and dark story that took Mitch Rapp from the budding assassin in American Assassin and Kill Shot to the brooding and purposeful man I read in Vince Flynn’s Transfer of Power. I’m so glad that I’ve finally gotten my answer with Denied Access, where Don Bentley more comfortably steps into the world of Mitch Rapp with all the things I’d wanted to read as a fan.
Right on the heels of the events of Kill Shot, Mitch Rapp is laying low to avoid the scrutiny of his adversaries. His blissful unwinding with Greta (you’ll remember her from American Assassin and Kill Shot) is interrupted when she is threatened by the past of her grandfather, particularly with his role in the cold war. Meanwhile, the capture of a highly-prized American asset in Moscow has left the agency’s Moscow Station in shambles. With a Congress inquiry into the larger agency on the horizon, all it will take is a spark to light the whole power keg and kick off a new world war, unless Rapp can connect the dots first.
What worked best for me in Denied Access is a consistent focus on Rapp. Bentley channels the words and development of Vince Flynn as he writes Mitch Rapp, Stan Hurley, Irene Kennedy, and Thomas Stansfield just the way I’d imagined them continuing from the origin trilogy of Mitch Rapp. The prize however stays with Mitch Rapp as we see his character evolve further from a highly-skilled but conflicted assassin to a man who by the end, embraces his dark nature in a display that one soon won’t forget.
While the narrative definitely integrates Don Bentley’s distinctive style, it very much harkens back to the Vince Flynn storytelling but is even more fast-paced and action-packed, making Denied Access one of the most exciting thrillers you’ll read this year. Where Capture or Kill was testing the waters, Denied Access is unapologetically Mitch Rapp in all his glory. His descent into darkness and the eventual balance between light and his dark sides, are stated with a nuanced tone in between the high-octane race against time for Rapp to embrace what he really is, an unstoppable assassin driven by a strong moral sense of justice in a world not so clearly defined by rules.
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