After the success of books like Consent to Kill and Extreme Measures, the low quality of Vince Flynn’s newest novel The Last Man was disappointing. The creative plot that Flynn usually employs in his novels was missing and the characters, flashy and personalized, and were over-dramatic.

Flynn uses Mitch Rapp, a CIA operative, to illustrate a small, war-ravaged Afghanistan town in which another CIA agent, Joe Rickman works and lives. As one of the top agents in the CIA, Rickman is privy to many secrets and classified information. So, when Rickman is kidnapped by an unknown organization, many CIA secrets that need to be kept secrets for the safety of its agents and workers could be leaked if Rickman cracks under interrogation.

Rapp’s job is to find Rickman before he reveals critical information to his interrogators and potentially ruins the CIA for decades to come. Through brutal questioning with locals, gunfights on the streets, and arguments with Afghani police, Rapp employs every mean of investigation to locate Rickman in one of the most important manhunts in CIA history, all while Rickman reveals more and more information because of cruel torture at the hands of criminals who will stop at nothing to cripple and defame the CIA.

The Last Man had the potential to be one of those thrillers in which the die-hard spy saves the victim, kills all who stand in his way and becomes the hero, but it wasn’t. Even with the unique topic, the actual book was unrealistic, unoriginal and boring. Most books fail to captivate reader interest as the story continues. There is no difference here. The Last Man’s plot slowed down considerably, it was a long read at 448 pages and Flynn didn’t have enough enthralling scenes to keep the reader interested. Basically, even though this book could have been much more, it was a flop. Flynn uncharacteristically didn’t do a good job with this book and it was all in all not an enjoyable read.

Rating: 2 out of 5