Executive Power – Vince Flynn – Episode 132

The Buddies are once again revisiting their old pal Vince Flynn, in his 2003 thriller “Executive Power”. This one had all the elements of a classic Mitch Rapp novel: fast paced, action packed, and a shockingly detailed description of Rapp’s “tan scar-dappled muscly torso” that definitely moved something (in George Costanza’s words). The Buddies got to chatting about whether this was actually a David book disguised as a Mitch book, how Austin Powers is definitely still alive and working for MI6, and the critical importance of Mitch lying to his wife for national security reasons. So crack open a Miller Lite, practice your sniper calculations with wind speed and dew point, and join the other disciplined listeners who ask for forgiveness not permission when downloading this pod.

Intro/Book Report (0:00-3:05)

Stock Up/Down (3:06-32:42)

Favorite Scene/Character (32:43-36:46)

Love/Hate (36:47-45:59)

Conclusion (46:00-48:58)

NEXT BOOK: Gone Before Goodbye by Reese Witherspoon & Harlan Coben

Transcript for SEO purposes 🙂

I’m Dylan, here with the man who brought peace
to the Middle East.
Keith, what’s up, buddy?
It’s, it’s, it’s just as I have
how much things have been.
to the best of the season.
This week we’ll be discussing
the late great Vinnie Flynn’s 2023 thriller,
Executive Power.
If you’d like to recommend a book for us to read
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and thanks.
Send us a note if you want.
We like that stuff.
Keith, Executive Power, 4.32 on Goodreads.
It’s gonna get a little confusing here,
but this is the seventh book in the storyline,
the sixth to feature “Mitch Wrap,”
but the fourth by publication date.
and the third one we’ve done.
Yeah, Yeah, yeah.
It’s like term limits or something like that?
Yeah, I think it had Coleman in it
and then he carried him over,
but then he was like,
Let me try this Mitch Wrap” dude,
did everyone’s like,
Yeah, that’s the guy, let’s keep him in every single book from our one.
after this one he didn’t do another pivot.
I got a book report for you,
and here we go, in front of the class.
We last saw a wrap in “Separation of Power”
where he took down a corrupt politician
and made Ben Friedman cry,
but not before his identity was exposed
and the always secretive wrap was thrust into the limelight.
Forrest take a desk job
as middle management in the CIA.
I’m not always looking down for “Mitch.”
He married Anna and wished her off to an island honeymoon
where he was thrusting not into the limelight,
but into the moonlight, sunlight, candlelight,
basically a non-stop sex debate.
Upon returning home, Mitch,
double-fisting PD like to get his fluids back up, of course,
finds out about the botched rescue of the Anderson’s
which involves two of the three things he hates most.
Dead seals and career politicians
who put their own interests ahead of national security.
What’s the third?
You don’t make it another third.
It’s car news, circus fuck, no mads you know.
As if Mitch needed a reason to jump out from behind the desk,
a stopcracking numbers two pencils
and start cracking skulls.
We see flashes of Old Mitch during his Philippines excursion,
which is absolutely nothing to do with the story.
What is the story you ask?
The story is about how some guy, not Mitch rap,
is creating so much chaos and bloodshed
inside an outside Palestine
that he forces the United States
to vote for a free Palestine at the UN.
Oh wait, it’s not the chaos and bloodshed
that’s forcing the US’s hand.
It’s a potential orin embargo with OPEC.
That interior tire storyline is less exciting
than a full-page detailed explanation
we get of rap’s tan scar,
dappled mussely torso in chapter one.
Wow, that was a long buck of you.
That was great, those,
I think the effort alone, I think that’s an a straight A.
Oh wow.
All right, thanks.
Well, that is the book,
so we’ll catch you guys for the next one.
No, let’s get into some stock up, stock down.
Keith, what do you have for a stock up executive power?
Stock up being disciplined?
I don’t know if you caught this,
but this book, I think the word discipline
was referenced no less than a hundred times.
The seals in Mitch rap get out to the Philippines
so to take down the kind of the Philippine army slash
guerrilla warfare, slash terrorist.
and they were being hunted supposedly
by the Philippine special forces.
and every single time it’s just like,
the discipline of this army,
let me tell you,
they’re setting up signs for the commanders
so you can know the sniper’s nowhere to shoot.
They’re not at full attention at all times.
They’re like lounging around.
They’re not scoping the forest for X, Y, and Z.
I don’t like the whole time.
I’m like, yeah, that’s pretty crazy.
They’re not doing that.
They’re not thinking about,
this is the Navy seals for a country
that has the biggest defense budget ever.
That is fully trained, ready to go in and attack these people.
These people have just been,
like guerrilla, militia guerrilla troops there,
just like out in the Philippines,
probably get, don’t get like a three square meals a day.
They’re not trained well.
They’re not all of these things.
Shitting on them, I kind of felt bad for them.
I mean, we have a $500 billion defense budget
going into these trainings.
They have like $500, to some of them.
I mean, think about the money that he offered, by the way,
the guy, he’s like, I will give you $200,000.
I’m like, $200, that wouldn’t even be a line item
in the US military’s thing.
That would be seen as miscellaneous cash.
Like, that’s not even something that would be even considered.
And he’s like, I’ll give you $200,
like these people are desperate.
So I just thought of funny how much they’re
shitting on discipline the whole time.
I know what Mitch rap or Vinnie Flynn is doing here.
He’s kind of trying to teach you, like, how military
should operate in terms of what their mindset should be.
But I also feel bad for the average Philippine guerrilla
who’s been sitting out the rainforest,
getting rained on for three months.
And it’s not fully, full attention during a hurricane.
So I just wanted to point that out.
Yeah.
And General Moral’s on the take.
So he doesn’t really care.
They’re not going to attack him.
He’s not going to attack them.
So it’s like Mitch being critical of a game
that he also know is rigged.
So I mean, the one thing that stood out to me for that
was the sign, like, General Moral lives here.
It seems something straight out of Looney Tunes,
like, who would possibly–
doesn’t matter what the situation is,
you don’t say the boss is here.
Someone was just going there and toss a grenade there
and be like, all right, all right.
It’s all over.
Got me back thinking about the Patriot.
We were actually chatting about it earlier.
They speak the Patriot.
And when they get pissed in Mel Gibson’s guys
for targeting like, lieutenants and targeting officers.
And he’s like, yeah, whatever.
There, that’s what we do.
You get that smart.
That’s just being smart.
But it’s just funny how at that time, it was like,
oh, how dare you possibly do that.
Well, everyone loves guerrilla warfare until it happens to them.
Like, wouldn’t be it not on the be a con we’re doing it,
we’re like, yeah, this is bullshit.
What do they do?
They’re not allowed to do these things, you know?
So everyone loves it until it happens to you.
And you’re on the backyard.
OK, discipline.
My first one was, as for forgiveness, not permission,
stock up.
It’s just– it’s pretty much wraps M.O. and always has been.
And we love– we love Mitch for it.
This one, I feel, he little bit maybe takes the next level
when he goes into the Philippines for his Anderson rescue.
Not only does he usurp Kennedy by not letting her know they’re
going to go, they’re going to go.
He just– he does the president, the president of the United
States.
The president has no idea.
The president’s like, the next day, he’s like, oh, they went.
He’s like, oh, it’s just a cover form.
Like, oh, yeah, we saw a brief opportunity, so we took it.
Which is fine, because it worked out.
And it always works out for Mitch.
But it’s just– it’s amazing how he is able to consistently just
be like, you know what?
I know what’s best.
I got this.
And we love Mitch for it.
I think there is some funny stuff in– not only this book,
but a lot of the other ones, where he hates getting behind.
He’s like, oh, red tape.
Mitch gets all pissed, because there’s
this whole political machine behind it.
And you and I, I think, agree on that so much
that the bureaucratic bullshit is what holds back actual progress.
But at the same time, it applies to Mitch.
And it works out fine, because Mitch is–
his morals and his goals are in line
with what the countries are.
And just he’s has a general, like, good moral code.
He doesn’t like to torture people.
He doesn’t think he’s good information.
He doesn’t relish in murdering people, so he says.
But he kind of does.
But the whole point why those things are in place
is because not everyone is you, Mitch.
Like, there’s people who are potentially doing good
in their mind, but are doing it maybe the wrong way.
Look at David in this book, for example.
He’s like, hey, I want a free Palestine.
And here’s how I’m going to go about it.
Yeah, that’s probably not the best way to go about it.
Maybe there needs to be a little more red tape
in those situations, but I just love how Mitch gets so mad
that it has to go through all these checks and clearances
and all this stuff.
He’s like, just let me go out there and kill the bastard.
And it works for him more often than not.
It’s like, all right, yeah, that makes sense.
But there’s a reason those things are in place, Mitch, unfortunately.
Yeah, I get you, but I also think that just his–
you shouldn’t put him in that position
if you don’t want him to do what he’s best at.
He’s trained as a guy that would go over to the Middle
East and camp out on the street for two weeks,
just pretending to be a homeless person just for the right time
to go in there and kill the person.
His mindset is whenever is best strategic for us to operate,
I should do that.
If he needs to be constantly going back and forth
and asking whether it’s OK–
Oh, for sure.
–then they’re limiting it.
Then you shouldn’t be in that position.
That’s just fact.
Then you’re just taking away his best asset.
Did you see “ZeroDuct30”?
Yeah, “ZeroDuct30” movie.
Yeah, it was great.
And I just think about it sometimes with this,
these books where they’re almost certain
that this guy has been logged in this house.
But they can’t prove it.
There’s no way to prove it.
And so there’s just months are ticking by as they’re trying
to get a picture of him or something for them to actually
be able to go in there and take him out.
Because it’s in Pakistan, it’s a big thing.
And I’m saying, if this was Mitch, he would have been in there
in a heartbeat and just be like, fuck it.
I’m going for it.
But yeah, that’s just the way it is.
Well, let’s try for stock up.
Stock up.
Austin Powers being right.
Oh.
I mean, this sucks, I don’t think it’s infinity.
So I mean–
Which ones, like Swedish penis and larger pumps are my bag, baby?
Well, let me get to it.
I mean, obviously, there’s a lot of things he’s right about, obviously.
But not sure if you really caught a couple of these tidbits.
First off, then he flints clearly an Austin Powers fan.
I mean, that’s just fact.
Because I couldn’t figure out his name,
but the old MI6 spy that is following Prince Omar, that’s
his Austin Powers, right?
Oh, oh.
I mean, let’s look at think about this.
He was an international man of mystery.
Well, he’d be– he was like 70 or 80, right?
That’s what the age that it had, Austin Powers, not been frozen,
obviously, due to the freezing process
he couldn’t control the volume as voice.
But had he not been frozen, he would be that age in around 2000,
right?
So also, they described the British guy.
I’m just going to say it was Austin Powers.
As a womanizing British secret agent with a love for parting
and catchphrase is like, yeah, baby, well, I’m an out of the last one.
But he was a womanizing guy that was–
I loved that he was like 78 and he was checking out
the big, guinea girl.
I was like, what’s up?
All right.
So this was Austin Powers.
I’m pretty sure.
That guy wasn’t there.
This David dude would still be, well, I guess he could kill.
But he’d still be theoretically out there terrorizing everyone,
right?
Yeah.
The reason they knew about him was because of that.
I thought James Bond, but I like Austin Powers better.
So–
All right.
Now I’ll drive home.
Why it’s Austin Powers.
Austin Powers once said, demand, nobody use condoms except for who?
Sailors.
Only Sailors use condoms.
Guess what the Navy Seals were using?
AKA Sailors.
Navy Sealors, they were using condoms at the beginning of the book
on their weapons, the river water, getting in there.
Only Sailors use condoms, kid.
He is right.
I knew it.
Had tip events for that one.
Appreciate it.
Yeah.
OK.
I like that.
That’s a good call up.
I was kind of interested that that character wasn’t really involved.
I thought he was going to be more of a character in the story.
I wanted him and him and Mitch to have a conversation.
Yeah.
He’s a swav, you know, British guy talking about all this–
For Queen and Country.
I think Mitch would actually like him,
but like they were complete polar opposites.
You know, it’s kind of like the buddy cop thing.
We’re one guy super serious and one person’s like, go with the flow.
That was the vibe I was good, which I–
I need them to interact somehow.
Yeah.
Mitch cracks Miller lights in the showers,
and this guy’s drinking Brandy out of a snifter.
Oh, God, he’s great.
Stiff Martini’s all day.
Yeah.
Dirty.
Dirty and stiff.
Yeah, there you go.
My second stock up was Seinfeld.
Stock up.
Oh, God.
We’re just buying an easy stock.
So that’s why we bought that.
Very easy stock.
So in Seinfeld, almost always there’s–
and with a lot of sitcoms.
There’s almost always like an A plot and a B plot, right?
So in my mind, some of the best episodes,
the B plot is often better than the A plot.
For example, The Voice, which is one of the episodes in the later seasons,
like Jerry jokes about how his girlfriend’s stomach has a voice,
which inevitably gets back to her.
It’s not that funny of a sub-plot.
But The B plot is Cray America.
Cray America.
Cray America is in his intern.
So which is way funnier in the A plot.
We have The Wife, which is with Courtney Cox before our friends.
Jerry pretends his girlfriend is his wife
and like to get the dry cleaner credit or whatever.
It’s like a discount, right?
I don’t represent discount.
Not that funny.
It’s like the dry cleaner is a figure that’s his wife, not his wife, not his wife.
Not that funny.
The B plot is George getting caught peeing in the shower at the gym,
and then Elaine having to figure out if she’s going to back him up or not,
because his crush is the guy that found him.
There’s lots.
The strike is famously the Festivist episode, which you could say the Festivist part
is really the B plot and the strike is really just Kramer striking at the bagel shop.
My point here being is that the B plot, an executive power, which is the Philippines plot line
with General Moro and the Anderson rescue is better than the main plot of this book.
And it happens at the beginning, really, the middle third.
And it’s kind of what kept me in the book.
I mean, I’m always going to love a Mitch rap book, so it didn’t like make it so I couldn’t
read it or whatever the case is.
But that was our Mitch rap.
That Philippines whole situation was our experience with Mitch in his element.
The rest of it was more of a David story while Mitch is two steps behind him or one step
behind him trying to track him down.
Yeah, we don’t know how those dots connect until probably three fours into the book.
So there’s really, I kind of saw it more as like a clear and present danger, where, which
is like a classic 90s movie.
Clearly, it was probably when I favorite movie was going up.
But there’s like many things going on eventually they’ll connect at the end.
This one like didn’t wrap up perfectly, obviously, because we never really got the Mitch
verse David or David verse, whoever, because he kind of just gets snuffed out at the end,
unfortunately.
But I do think it’s, this is like the classic 90s movies.
They don’t make these movies anymore.
But they’re just like three or four things going on.
Like how they’re going to come together and then they, they did the Philippines thing tie
into this though tie into the main plot.
That’s a good question.
It didn’t.
Yeah.
Okay.
I was like, wait, did you tie into it?
It doesn’t necessarily need to tie in.
I don’t think everything needs to tie in, but it does.
No, I agree that it does.
And it’s fine to have like more than one.
It seemed like Vinnie Flynn wrote this book and it was too short and he was like, well, I
have this other manuscript I’ve been working on for another Vince Flynn thing.
Like we could slip this in to, you know, the middle third of the book and now it’s a full
fleshed book.
And it just shows Mitch getting back into the field.
Yeah.
And also when you were reading the Philippines part, were you just matching Predator the
whole time?
Because that’s all I was imagining the whole time of the, no, I was the greatest 20 minutes
of a movie ever.
But first 20 minutes of Predator.
Yeah.
Okay.
When someone says Predator, the first thing that comes to my head is the guy taking the, no,
is the guy taking the dry razor to his face.
Yeah.
That’s a lot of it.
And pushing so hard and telling bleeds like that.
Oh, that gives me the skivies.
Every single character that was, was like, you, I laugh every single time that anyone does
anything for the first 20 minutes, the character introductions, but from that to like this, the
macho stuff that’s going on, it’s hilariously awesome.
Every single part of it.
A lot of macho stuff going on.
Yeah.
It’s like what awesome powers would make fun of, but at the same time, I love that type of thing,
you know?
For sure.
Yeah.
There’s a new, it’s just about how bad the IP is these days is like a new Predator.
They’re like taking the Predator serious.
It’s supposed to be like a, it’s like the, the village that Anakin kills, the sand people
or whatever.
Yeah.
It’s like they’re humanizing these sand people that at the beginning were just like,
Ahhhhhh.
Now they’re doing the same thing with Predator.
It’s like a little baby Predator is in there.
You can’t be doing that.
Yeah.
My next stuck up was being in your first serious relationship, stuck up.
So rap just straight up does not know how to be a good partner in a relationship.
I’m saying it here.
He puts his shit first every single time since you know, it’s for, for the good of the
country.
Tells straight up lies to his wife or omits under information under the guise of national
security.
If he didn’t get shot in the ass, Anna never would have known that he decided to get back
on the front lines even though he promised her he wouldn’t.
And the reason why being in your first relationship is this stuck up is because the entire time,
Anna’s like, “Well, you know, Mitch isn’t used to this.
He’s used to the Bachelor of Lifestyle.
He’s always operating alone.
Like I got to give him the benefit of the doubt.
You know, once, you know, once he spends more time together, he’s going to realize that
there’s always this, he’s never done this before.
So I got to give him a break when really he’s just straight up lying to his wife all the
time.”
I really didn’t like the whole Anna and Kennedy and Mitch drama stuff.
One is really not what the book is about.
I get that you want to add in some, this is tough for a guy that’s always acted independently
and never really had a serious relationship to be reigned in and like treat like that.
Like having your boss shit talk you to your wife and whatnot is just like, “That’s kind
of sucks.
I kind of on Mitch’s side for that.”
I mean, I’m just doing it mostly for a bit.
The Anna and Kennedy interactions were mostly cringeworthy and really were just bad.
It’s also just funny.
I’m actually Kennedy, usually too, but this is just like, “I’m like, do I miss remember
Kennedy because like this book, she kind of is, yeah.”
And she like tears Anna apart and then it’s like, “Wait, it has like a quick internal
like, wait, imagine how she must be feeling, not knowing where her husband is.”
It’s like, and you know, God bless these people, but this is the lives of so many people to
ploy.
Right, military.
You know?
Exactly.
Yeah, you have no idea where their significant others are.
And they could be in some freaking outpost in the middle of nowhere and they don’t hear for
them for weeks at a time and they’re just hoping they’re okay.
I mean, it’s terrible, but Anna crying about it, at least tell me where you’re going.
It’s like, absolutely not.
I work for the CIA.
Right, right.
The whole point here is also to keep you safe.
So if I tell you then you have information that someone else could take from you.
Yeah, I have this as a stock later, but my whole analogy for it, it was Bala Check would
always bring you back to the Patriots, don’t worry about that.
But Bala Check would, like, someone would get injured, for instance, I think like, Gronkan
injured, like, feel-go, pass protector or something.
And it was feel-go, and then it’s like, yeah, when you broke his arm.
Yeah, and they’re like, why would you ever do that?
Why would you do that?
He’s the best at that position.
So do you want me to put someone else in so someone else gets injured or other players on
our team don’t do as well, although it’s feel like- like, the whole concept of, no, he
shouldn’t be in there.
Like, he is the best at what he does.
So by not putting him there, you’re now sacrificing other people’s lives.
So now other people’s children and spouses are going to not see them because you’re not putting
the best person there.
I mean, obviously that’s a weird analogy, but you see them saying, like, the whole concept
of like, I selfishly don’t want him out there, but he is the best of what he does.
That’s why he’s there.
Yeah, yeah.
Don’t have them out there or find someone better than him, and then if you think there is,
but from what we can tell in this book, he’s the best of- he’s the great of all time.
So you got to roll with him.
I mean, I agree with you 100%, but he also was the only person that got shot in that engagement.
So-
You know how the like, Marky Mark said that if he was on one of the 9/11 planes, it wouldn’t
have go down like that?
Like, if Mitch Brapp was let loose, it wouldn’t have gone down like that.
That’s the fact of the matter.
So just think of it that way is like the- the more you keep him not off the leash or keep
him on the leash, more things are like that are going to happen.
So more people are going to die if you don’t let Mitch Brapp do what Mitch Brapp does.
Yeah.
Just start the matter.
Got it.
Okay.
Cool.
Do you have any other stockups?
Yeah.
Last one, Steamy or Erotic Novel stockup.
I mean, you’re the very book club, but we’re always down to read.
I said that, you know, it’s our typical genres.
We’ve read everything from 50 Shades of Grey, fourth wing.
And there’s some H.J. stuff in “Song of Achilles.”
We’ve read some of those stuff, but it’s always nice when a book can span multiple genres,
because this one you would assume is mostly just action, but I didn’t realize this also
crossover to Erotic Steamy Novel.
So like, did you know that?
What are you coming in?
Because the first chapter, you already referenced it a little bit, but I mean, anyone else here?
Yeah, in the words of George Costanza.
It moved.
I was just picturing a mix between, you know, Dan O’Creg when he comes out of the water,
or Timmy Regans, or Brad Pitt, and Fight Club.
It was just a mix of other three guys at this Erotic vacation.
I mean, I guess his wife was there also.
How’s it going to say?
It’s funny that we’re just like, no, that guy was super hot in there.
Like, she’s in a white thong.
It’s not that hot.
I don’t care.
I don’t care.
I don’t care.
I don’t care.
I don’t care.
What’s Mitch doing?
Like, what we talked about some of these other books where it’s like a second or third
book, and we’re like, we need to re-entruse the characters.
Because we don’t remember them that well.
This is how you do it right here.
This is how it’s done.
Everyone take notes, all right?
So it moved, stock up, erotic, novel, novels.
I would just say just a little, like, conclusion here if you’re going to read this book, before
you get started, don’t do it in a public place.
Maybe draw a nice warm bath.
Maybe light some candles.
And really just enjoy yourself, that first couple chapters, you know what I mean?
So that’s what I would say.
Oh, yeah.
It was funny.
It was very much like, yeah.
Even though James Bond, when it’s always him walking out of the water, you know, whether
it’s Daniel Craig or Wise’s name is escaping me.
Holly Berry does it too.
Well, I know Holly Berry, of course, that’s the most famous one, perhaps.
Yeah.
Well, maybe not.
There’s some older ones there.
Pierce Brosnan.
That’s who I was thinking of.
He was a gorgeous man as well.
But yeah, it’s just funny that this, you know, that scene featured both people, and they
were both scantily clad and, you know, getting sexual and whatnot, and both of our focus was
like, what are his scars?
I’m so interested in that.
Horses LaCrosse stats again?
Yeah, Sir Kees, right?
He’s an orange man.
Yeah.
He’s a basically Jim Brown, I mean.
Yeah, exactly.
Uh, stock down, and I hate to say that, especially after we just gothed, but stock down rap being
the coolest guy in the book.
You know, before this book, it was always rap doing cool shit, blowing stuff up, throw
a punch in terrorists, and executive power though.
It’s David who does all the bad ass stuff.
His ultimate goal is, is the free Palestine, and he’s going to achieve that his way.
So we’re talking torturing and murdering a statistic and sexually deep in a raki general
check, double crossing Palestinian terrorists leaders and blowing them all up, while also
then stabbing one in the face a couple times, check.
Disassonating Palestinian Ambassador to the UN, check car bombing, Saudi Ambassador to the
UN.
Like, these aren’t all good acts, you know, mostly outside of a couple of, but they were
the most exciting and thrilling parts, and he seemed like the most bad ass person in the
book for the vast majority of it.
It was really a David book.
I’m not sure it was much of a rap book, because it was rap usually just like checking with
his intel people back in the CIA trying to track this guy down or track him to Prince Omar
who they eventually identified.
So yeah, rap just wasn’t the coolest guy in the book, so stuck down to that.
Look, I’m just thinking back to the first one, whatever the one who is transfer power,
or whatever that one is, right?
When he’s solo fighting all the terrorists in the White House, the most bad ass, that’s
the, that’s transfer power, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, just the most bad ass one.
It’s like John McLean in diehard is basically what he’s doing, except it’s in the White House.
And now he’s doing more of a behind the scenes thing except for the Philippi excursion.
Definitely wasn’t edgy or seat or like the, the stakes weren’t as high in this one as, as
I felt like in other ones where it’s like you have a certain amount of time before XYZ
happens.
This one you’re kind of just like following along where other ones I can think the stakes
were set early so you were got way more pressure to it.
Yeah, they’d be like, there’s this vote, there’s this vote at the UN for Palestine.
Yeah.
Maybe that’s all right, we’ll just delay it.
And they’re like, it’s like calling a bomb threat.
It’s like, all right, fine, we’ll delay it.
It’s like, well, then the stakes just change, like the time that, right, right, doesn’t matter
so much.
And also how hard would it be to back off that if you voted yes, then it was like, oh,
well, hold on, all this crazy stuff just came out, sorry, like we’re not going to do
that.
It’s like, yeah, probably that’s fine.
What did you ever stuck down?
Stock down, meetings and bureaucracy.
This is what I’m wondering, though, mostly is, is it the check out of the
egg type thing here?
Is it that I like this book so much because Mitch rap just goes on and on about how much he
hates government and meetings and bureaucrat, and like all these things that I kind of believe
in?
Or is it that when I was reading when I was super young, I like this book so much that I adopted
those personality traits?
That’s what I’m not sure which one it is.
Like obviously you can be brainwashed, but can it be good brainwashing?
Is that possible?
Yeah, definitely.
I don’t know if anyone could unbrainwash me from this, but like I can’t be changed.
I mean, I think parenting is mostly just trying to good brainwash your kid.
Oh, I guess that’s good point.
Wow.
That should be a really good book name, actually, honestly.
If you wanted to write a self-help book, good brainwashing, how to fuck your kids up in
a good way, if I didn’t, how do I do, man?
How to fuck your kids up, right?
Yeah.
Wow.
So catchy.
You put like the stars or the you and people like, oh my god, he wasn’t a swear in the
title.
Wow.
That’s the best sellers right now.
Yeah, let’s do it.
Self-help book.
Let’s write one.
Chapter one.
Treat your kids like they’re adults.
Yeah, that’s your, that’s your motto.
Treat a three-month-old baby like it’s an adult.
Hello, child.
Try to shake its hand.
Give me a firm handshake next time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
My second stock down was a fained climax.
No, I’m not talking about chapter one.
What the heck was the David ending?
I think honestly, Prince Omar gets his odd job like henchman to sneak up behind David and
strangle him to death.
And that’s it.
He’s tossing over the side of the boat.
Yeah.
That’s all we get from David.
He was the Palestinian version of Mitch rep.
He was almost like Bain.
Like he had been, you know, we don’t even know when it happened between him and some of
these Palestinian or terrorist leaders that he killed.
You mentioned that they had like tortured him to some degree as a kid or something.
So we have no idea if it’s like a kite runner situation.
He seemed like he had grown up on the street of hard knocks but loved Palestine and had also
then pretty much had that had been his sole focus for his entire career.
So that was his like driving thing.
I can just imagine the montages we would have had of him training and whatnot.
And then just to be, snuck up on a luxury yacht and strangle the death was like,
Mm-hmm, oh, okay.
Like there’s no coming to a head with him in rap at all obviously.
The end rap gets Prince Omar and it’s, you know, somewhat enjoyable even though rap’s
like, “Oh, I don’t like to torture.”
Or whatever the case is.
He’s like shooting both of his fucking kneecaps out.
Just trying to get him to say something.
Which is the truth.
He’s trying to get him to say the truth but still it’s like, “Okay.”
Sure seems like your torture in this guy.
So that was somewhat enjoyable to Prince Omar piece but it just, it seemed to be a
really a lot climactic, you know?
Yeah, I think it comes down to that he made David too likeable of a bad guy.
So there would have been no really, it wouldn’t have felt good if Mitch went in there and shot
him in between the eyes.
You’d be like, “Well, that guy was kind of trying to do the right thing.”
Like, he wasn’t a bad guy.
There was a fine line between terrorists and patriot and he was kind of trying to do, he
thought he was a patriot.
Yeah, for sure.
That’s why he was the most interesting character because we all liked, we were like,
we all liked him.
Yeah, we couldn’t have Mitch Killham because he was…
Great, and I wonder how these things sell or like, you know, are taken in other countries
because no one really cares about him murdering and killing that sadistic Iraqi general or
the cases.
But you know, murdering all those Palestinian terrorists, like the people that he kills
are also not really necessarily like the biggest friends of the US.
Let’s say, you know, car bombs, Assad, Saudi ambassador, Palestinian ambassador.
It’s like, whatever, you know, we kind of look the other way on this.
But I don’t know, it’s just…
He was such an interesting character.
Well, he did blow up a bomb in the middle of the US, the Shrap Medal and things probably
killed a lot of people.
Yeah, but he was also very concerned about collateral damage.
And they said when the people went to the hospital, there was only a few life threatening
injuries.
They did mention that.
So, you know, he was very interested in limiting collateral damage.
He was like super broken up about when they shot those hellfire missiles or whatever the
case was into the town.
So I don’t know, it seemed like he could have been on a multi-book bad guy or even potentially
worked together, which just kind of sucks that Ben Friedman gets off.
How does it end for Ben Friedman?
He just still like give up his job at Assad.
Like that’s it.
Yeah, does he do that?
I don’t know.
I think they forced him to give up his job, but it’s two books where he was a total piece
of shit.
And then it’s like, okay, now he just gives up his job.
All right.
Like, I mean, I guess that is the world of politics, but the ending it just…
Of course, I just didn’t slap.
Yeah, I agree.
What else do you have to stock down?
Last one, getting shot, stocked down.
Obviously, here, but what’s the point of getting shot if you’re going to get zero sympathy?
Even our boy, for his gum, God, unlimited ice cream.
Oh, my God.
I would do that.
I mean, like, I just assumed, hey, you can get angry at the person, but maybe wait a month,
you know what I mean?
Like, they just got shot at the person, but his life is like, and his boss are both like,
fuck you.
Like, it goes back to my point.
I was saying before of like, Mitch is doing the most dangerous job in the world, and he
is the most pressure on him, and he’s doing what he thinks is right to help the country
and help like, like, I just don’t understand how you could be.
He’s not like he went in there and killed 30 civilians, and I got you.
You know what I mean?
He’s like, doing, he’s saving other people.
So it was a little weird.
Also, I was maybe a spousal abuse stock up.
I mean, I don’t know.
He’s a lot of punch people in the face now, but I don’t know.
But anyways, yeah.
So, yeah.
So I never get a shot.
It was interesting.
I mean, it was interesting that she just like straight up, cold-coaked bitch right?
Right.
It was like, oh, whatever.
But I think maybe it’s more of a stock down, like, getting shot for the 20th time
stock down, you know, it’s lost.
It’s a luster kind of thing.
Yeah, okay.
So he has shot the…
The first time she’s gone through this.
He didn’t get shot in the last…
No, he…
Oh, I don’t know.
I can’t remember.
Yeah.
Well, she didn’t care that because she was being saved.
She’s like, yeah, take a bullet from me.
I don’t care.
But not these other random people that I don’t care about.
Yeah, just like, you know, he had shot in the ass on his like 15th time getting shot.
So it’s like less cool.
You know, it’s less of a sympathy pity party than…
I’m sure the first time he got shot if she was there, she’d be like, oh, but she know,
she’s got all these scars on his body.
She’s like, oh, I got shot in the ass.
And it’s like, yeah, well, sucks to be you.
What was your favorite part?
I think you already talked about David being the best character, so I would say him a
per-character.
Favorite part, I already mentioned a cast, both of two, is just the Philippines and being
the predator.
And also, anytime there’s a sniper, for whatever reason?
Yeah.
Tell me the distance the sniper shooting from and then only five people in the world can
do it and they’re measuring the wind and stuff like that.
Yeah, for all the facts.
He’s like, hey, what’s the moon at that’s going to affect the that your chapter?
It’s the tide.
It’s the dew point.
Yeah.
Yeah, all that stuff.
That could be 100% made up and I’m 100% sold.
I’m bought in for all that stuff.
I mean, it’s like the movie shooter.
It’s not a good movie, but any snipery type scene phenomenal.
I mean, they’re all good.
And I made the gates like such a good movie that actually is a good movie though I think
here.
It’s like pretty good.
Good little basement unwashed sex scene if you’re into that ritual wise.
What’s up?
Um, they all I also love that all the Russian spoke English there in different accents.
Yeah, they did.
Some were British accents, some were like the whole faking of Russian English accent for
the whole movie.
That’s so stupid.
I like what they do with that actually.
No, I think what they did in hunt for red October, I think that was the movie.
They did it best there, which was they were like they were speaking Russian at the table.
And then the camera kind of like moves around and as the camera is moving around the language
shifts to English.
Yeah, I thought I did the same thing for, for any of the gates where they start with speaking
Russian and they go to English.
Yeah, I don’t remember exactly.
But yeah, is there ever a bad sniper movie?
I can’t think of.
No, but it also brings me like a little my question around that though is, are you just like
really good at science then if you’re a sniper?
You’re just basically changing the scope settings, right?
So that you know where to.
Yeah, but there’s lots of, yeah, there’s lots of factors holding your breath.
I don’t know.
They used to have a history channel show, which was awesome.
It was like the world’s greatest shots and it was half interviews and half like them
recreating it.
So then they explained some of that obviously like two of them in people go to friggin, you
know, marine sniper school and are like the baddest motherfuckers around and they do this
for months.
But you know, basically you’re putting all this stuff in but then eventually you’re also
just aiming quadrants away from your, from your, from your crosshairs.
So it’s like, okay, with that you should be aiming 10 meters up and 25 meters to the
left.
So usually aiming at this empty piece in space, just hoping that the bullet falls onto the
guys head basically.
Well, the, I mean, it’s Leo in the part of the sniper’s hands, they cannot shake ever.
Like there are obviously elite level concentration already, but then you also have to add that
with like science to it.
I mean, my favorite part is, I already said it’s the Philippine part of just jungle warfare
throwing like them, the stuff with Coleman and the sniper, I really liked you.
They’re ribbing on him for being an older guy and him huffing up there.
I liked the general moro stuff a little, I mean, the exchange between moro and Mitch, I
thought was really good.
A little chest playing there while Mitch can’t, can’t let it go.
And then it’s also the fact that these operations, nothing’s ever perfect, you know, and the fact
that these seals are trained to be able to make the decisions in the field that a lot of
people will look to someone else to make a decision for.
It’s like, no, this is, he’s a full operational person, you know, he’s like a fully formed
unit.
He can act on his own, he can act as part of a team.
He knows whatever one else is doing.
You know, there’s a lot of sports analogies in that as well.
And, and I liked it a lot.
But yeah, so anytime there’s multiple seals working together, I mean, I’ll get into love
actually, but yeah, just anytime that’s that those people that we’re gonna gather, a big
fan.
What about loves?
What’d you love about his second power?
I don’t really know anything about Israel Pile’s answer.
It was interesting to get like somewhat perspective.
I thought I got a little in the weeds because I had no idea what they’re talking about
for half of it to be fair, but I thought it was like, oh, this is the same issue.
And this is people’s mindsets over there of their in a war constantly, even if there’s no
active war going on, their mindsets are, it’s a war.
So I thought that was an interesting perspective, especially since it’s so relevant today.
Yeah, it was definitely an interesting time to be reading this book based on what’s going
on in the world right now.
I as well am not like super well versed in that situation.
So I don’t even like feel like I could comment on it with any rational thought.
It was interesting having this be like a book that was written in 2003.
And it’s only escalated in the last 20 years.
So one of the things I loved, do some kit stuff.
We always like kit stuff when it comes to KIT not KID when it comes to like mid-ratt books.
I think the first one or maybe the second one, they he explains like an extraction.
You talk about the helicopter and he breaks it down to like what it’s, you know, what
it’s for and that was like how that book opened.
This one not so much, but obviously they talk about the Apache, which was pretty cool.
We get some stuff in the Philippines wraps.
You see they’re like an MP10 or an MP5 scene when he like grabs the gunies in the shooting
range on the ship.
And he just starts like, oh yeah, you like this one will do single auto and just like absolutely
crushes and it goes for the movie.
I’m moving it so amazing.
Yeah, yeah, this one of them.
Everyone he asked you guys, how tall are you?
You guys like, oh, five eights, like 165s or 163s, cool, I’ll take all your gear.
Appreciate you.
Some other stuff around the other guns that were featured, I enjoyed, you know, like when
Vinnie Flynn likes to do it and I’m okay with it anytime he wants to break down and kind
of explain the tech.
I’m a fan of that.
Yeah, because he doesn’t get super in the weeds and a lot of stuff, but when he does, it’s
about like military tactics, which I think we both appreciate.
I guess I’ll like come up on the first book.
See, it was like kind of the weeds like, volvos and stuff.
He’s like, this engine on this guy.
He’s like, wait, what other than that?
Usually he’s kind of like right to the point, get, get the plot going along pretty quick.
So, but he gets in the weeds for that stuff.
I love.
Yeah, tech and tactics is usually what he’s going for.
Do you have anything else on your love?
I did like that.
He always does write terrorists in a pretty compelling way that like you’re like, even if I don’t
agree with the person, I can see what, why they, they’re, you know, bred that way and why they think that way.
He’s like, what’s going on?
Where is back in the day?
I was just like, we can just do a movie with like just like a few action scenes and things come together.
And like, this one action here, you know, that just kind of is the best and that’s the movie.
Like, there’s no, you don’t need to have some like amazing plot for everything, right?
So, or now they’ll make that movie and it will be like, with the rock in it, you know, it’ll be like a comedy action.
Well, they made a mid-track book.
America Assassin, did you watch it?
Yeah, well, they cast it.
I, we’ve talked about it, they cast it the absolutely awful casting for that.
So, yeah, I didn’t see it.
So, what the dude from the maze runner, it’s like a YA actor.
I feel like he was in a curb episode and like, they’re just making fun of him for being like a little bitch and I’m like, this is Mitch rap.
No one would ever, ever, you wouldn’t be able to bring on, let’s just say like, as your example for a diehard, you would not be able to bring on Bruce Willis in his prime and make fun of him for being a nerd.
Like, it just, he would never, it’s like, that doesn’t make any sense that this person could never be a nerd. He’s the fucking man.
Mitch rap was never in a Disney Channel original movie.
Yeah, thank you. Yes. Yeah, I think I cast it when we did it before.
Who’s Bane? Tom Hardy.
Tom Hardy walks into Remy, we’re like, this guy might murder everyone in the room.
I don’t know. He’s scary, like, which is what Mitch rap needs to be.
Yeah, I don’t even necessarily need it to be like that, but I’d be fine with Stoic, you know, like even like an Eric Banna, you know, someone like that.
Yeah.
Who is someone that you could believe would be in the CIA and that he can kind of blend into his environment and, but you also know that underneath that Haynes t-shirt, he’s jacked and he’s going to like go in there and fuck some shit up, you know.
The thing is I need to picture him in that, in the vacation scene. Otherwise, I won’t do, you know.
Yeah, I just want to.
The only thing I had for my love was, and it’s going to be a theme for all these books I feel like, but just the pace, it was, yeah.
This was even arguably slower than the other ones we’ve read and less of a page turner, but it was still a page turner.
Like, I usually read, I listened to some of the audiobook before bed, and this one I was having tough time like actually falling asleep because I just wanted to listen to it.
It was an enjoyable story.
I was just like, I listened to one night right before they did the whole Philippines thing, and I was about to continue.
So once I get in, once they start, once guns start going off, I’m not going to be able to stop until they stop.
So I have to like turn this thing off and try to get my brain right.
Yeah, Vinny Flynn, I’ll always get with the pacing, just a perfect, a perfect beetroot situation.
Yeah, for sure.
What about Haynes?
Because Haynes was, my favorite skit from Shepal Show was Black Bush, do you remember that skit?
Yeah, really ties into this, because the UN of any power, I remember in Black Bush, he’s like,
you know what the UN should do? If they really have issues with me, they should sanction me, sanction me, maybe with their army.
Oh wait, you don’t have an army.
So I guess you’re going to shut the fuck up.
Like, that is the whole time I was thinking about it, and I was like, why do we care about this?
Oh, France is going to vote some way.
Who cares of France?
Who cares?
This doesn’t mean anything.
So that was my biggest issue with this is the stakes.
Who cares what they’re doing?
Yeah, you think Israel’s just going to bend over the UN.
It’s like, hey, Palestine is now a thing.
Maybe when it happened in the 40s or whatever the case is, but now I don’t think so.
But I guess they did, I guess they did based on the book, and I don’t even know this stuff.
Like they did step in when, I guess like Palestine went into Israel, and then like Israel pushed them out,
and they were like, oh, hold on, UN, come in here, help us.
Like, what’s going on here? It’s like, whoa, you’re the…
There’s like NATO, that’s going in.
Yeah, I don’t have no idea.
I have no idea.
Yeah, that’s why, like they don’t have an army that they can actually be like,
all right, we’re going to do something now, right?
So I don’t think it’s just more of like a push in papers that I don’t know.
I have no idea.
But anyways, bye-bye, yeah.
For Hades, it was really something we were discuss, just mid-stopping the center of attention.
I need mid-should-be the center of attention.
I needed more from him and David.
I think David was kind of a lost character.
You know, he could have been continued on in this.
Like if David went and killed Ben Friedman or something like that,
and now David’s still out there would have been interesting for a follow-up book.
I don’t really know where they go with this,
so I’m not 100% but it just seemed like you could have, you could have stretched that character out.
Yeah, yeah.
Anything else for you?
No, I think I mentioned pretty much everything.
Okay, cool.
We don’t have any listener mail to that I know of,
but I did want to read this is the most liked and commented review on Goodreads.
For this book.
And I think this guy is equally, totally on top of this and then completely wrong.
So that’s why I wanted to read it.
Okay.
His, this is Dave from Goodreads.
Sometimes I’m not sure why I keep reading these books.
It’s basically a guy’s version of a romance, not a spies, bad guy’s action, cheesy dialogue.
It’s a literary version, it’s a literary version of the television show 24.
That said, any store involving Mitrapp is a page turner, no matter how poorly written,
or how much the authors disdain for things like the UN diplomacy and liberal universities see through
the story.
Breakdown plus four stars for mostly gripping story,
minus one star for totally lame way to off the antagonist, minus one star for awkward discussions
and moments involving Mitch’s wife and his boss.
So he’s, he’s a 100% right, but he’s 100% wrong.
It’s why it was, it was amazing.
Yeah.
If he changes first sentence to, I’m sure I know why I keep reading these books.
As opposed to, I’m not sure why, then I would be like, oh, okay, yeah, because yes,
it is the guy’s version of romance, all right.
But also like the concept of something being a page turner, but not well written,
doesn’t make any sense to me.
If everyone could write page turners, every single person would write page turners.
That’s what sells the most books.
So that’s like being like, oh, kids books are easy to write.
It’s like, I don’t track Vince Flynn book looking for a tale of two cities.
You know?
Yeah. I mean, that’s every single one of these reviews.
I think if you went in being told this is tale two cities, then you, and you got that,
then I’d be, oh, I get it.
Set your expectations to high for a movie, and you get kind of upset when it’s not as good as you
think it should be. I get that.
But this, if you read a four three or four of Mitch wrap books, and you come in and you’re
surprised that this is what’s what it is, then I want Fredrick Bachman to take a shot at a Mitch
wrap book.
There’d be a lot of jokes in there and a lot of depressing stuff going on.
The reason Mitch is, isn’t able to get along with his wife, really ties back to his childhood
when his dad was beating him, relentless. It’s like, oh, they shit. What the hell?
Keith, how many buddies you give it and who’s the book for?
Yeah, I think out of five.
Yeah, I’ll probably give it a four to five.
I think this is a solid book.
I would definitely, I wouldn’t skip it.
Was it as good as, I mean, every single thing is trying to compare it to transfer power.
No, I don’t really remember this one at all, which I do remember some of the plots to other ones.
So I think that kind of tells you that it probably wasn’t on the upper echelon of Mitch wrap books.
So yeah, I would say four. I think the standard is four and then it goes up from there.
That’s what you’re getting for Mitch wrap. This is me. But yeah, bye bye.
Yeah, I give it like three point seven five out of five.
It’s tough because I’m then comparing it to other Mitch wrap books.
Transfer of powers probably is close to a five as you can get, you know?
And then so far, they probably trickled a little bit from there.
So they’re trickling in that direction.
I’m hoping they, you know, maintain is fine.
I don’t want them to dip too lower.
But yeah, three seven five.
And I mean, this book works as a standalone book.
You don’t necessarily need the other ones, I feel like.
Who cares?
The Mitch Anna relationship is such a small part of this book.
And it doesn’t really matter.
So he gives a good general background without going too deep into the background to do it.
So this is like you’re walking it’s the summer, you’re on vacation.
And someone has one of those little library things on the corner of their street.
And this book is sitting in there and you’re like, oh hell yeah.
I’m going to grab a six pack of Miller lights.
I’m going to go sit on the beach and I’m going to crush this book while I crush those cans.
So yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s, that sounds terrific, it’s a great point.
Um, what’s coming next?
Next we got our girl, a, K. R, potential arch nemesis, Rhys Bootherspoon, along with
Harlin Coben who I don’t have never read a Harlin, Coming book.
I don’t know, that is.
He’s like a pretty famous, he like he’s one of those guys at tranceyone every year.
Okay.
Ah, he’s like one of, look, the airport, you’ll see.
They both wrote a book gone before goodbye, that’s new, so that’s a quick little crime thriller,
one that will-
Medical thought been here-
Top billing, too, she’s on the top of the book, he’s on the bottom, I don’t know if that matters,
but it’s funny to think that she’s actually right.
I don’t know.
Okay.
Well, yeah, so we’re going to do that one, and then we got a couple others in the docket
ready to go after that, so yeah.
All right, cool.
Yeah, I’m excited.
We got a live interview coming up at some point, and yeah, we’re going to do Mitch rap,
Rhys Bootherspoon, crime thriller, then we got a fantasy novel, is that what we’re doing?
Fantasy.
And the author one, we’ll see.
We’ll do both, yeah, so we got, those are all coming up, so this is exciting.
What’s the fantasy one, just in case other people-
Oh, Will of many.
Will of many.
Yeah, the Will of many.
Will of many, got it.
Cool.
Yeah.
All right, well, I’m excited for some Rhys Bootherspoon talk, and also some fantasy coming
forward.
All righty, good stuff.
I’ll catch you for that one.
All right, bye now.
Bye now.