July 29, 2019
Bestseller Mills’s rousing fifth Mitch Rapp novel (after 2018’s Red War) pits Mitch, the creation of Vince Flynn (1966–2013), against Mullah Sayid Halabi, an ISIS terrorist grievously wounded in an earlier battle with Mitch. Halabi, a man with a grudge, kidnaps Gabriel Bertrand, a brilliant French microbiologist, to assist him in spreading the deadly disease known as Yemeni Acute Respiratory Syndrome around the world. The only way Mitch can stop the plan is to sacrifice his personal life and go undercover into the ranks of Mexican cartel boss Carlos Esparza, whose minions are set to infect populations with the disease. Meanwhile, Senator Christine Barnett, a traitor, lusts to win the U.S. presidency, an ineffectual president just wants to sit out the remainder of his term, and an American electorate reacts only to partisanship and hatred. Despite these familiar plot elements, Mills makes them fresh and handles the writing as skillfully as Flynn as ever did. The pages will fly by. 8-city author tour. Agent: Simon Lipskar, Writers House.