Book Review: Sparks Fly In “Vince Flynn - Total Power” By Kyle Mills

It’s been a strange year. 

The world is living with a global pandemic. The current situation has created a myriad of problems in our society, serving up enough drama to fill up social media timelines and dominate news coverage. All of this is sure to become fodder for volume-upon-volume of historical texts in the future.

In light of world events, it seems only fitting that thriller writer Kyle Mills’s latest Mitch Rapp novel concocts a scenario more stark, crippling, and terrifying than the real-life scenario we find ourselves in today. 

“Total Power” (scheduled for release Tuesday, Sept. 15) was written before COVID-19. Yet Mills has had a knack for being prescient with his recent Mitch Rapp novels. 

Mills’s 2019 novel “Lethal Agent” (read my review) dealt with a deadly virus (a coronavirus bio-weapon) that could decimate populated areas of the world like wildfire. What seemed like an interesting geopolitical hook a year ago seems downright prophetic this year. 

Mills recently told the MitchRappPod podcast: “At this point, as a thriller novelist, you can either kind of run from what is happening in the world — because it’s complicated, sometimes a little depressing — and kind of bring your focus in on your character.” 

The author opts to “go big or go home.”  

What I’ve enjoyed about the six entries Mills has crafted in the Mitch Rapp series is that he doesn’t shy away from tackling macro geopolitical issues. 

“Total Power” finds Mitch Rapp & Co. dealing with calamitous scenario that takes down the power grid across the United States. 

I don’t think most Americans realize the ramifications of a total power outage in the United States. 

The closest I ever came to experiencing something like that was after an October ice storm in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1997. 

Our home was without power for 10 days due to the damage wreaked by thick ice on leaf-covered branches. I remember watching as those ice-laden trees took out power lines in our backyard. The blue sparks created an eerie mood as power lines bent and snapped. 

The type of outage I experienced was inconvenient, but temporary. 

Mills does a solid job weaving details about the catastrophic implications a mass power outage would bring to a nation. 

This is the type of scenario we could’ve seen the late Tom Clancy tackling during his prime, doling out intricate details over the course of a 900-page tome. 

In many respects, the way Mills handles different threads in “Total Power” reminds me of those meaty Clancy books of the 1980s and 90s (but written in a page-turning style built for today’s thriller audience). 

The opening pages of “Total Power” find Russian sleeper agent Sonya Voronova meeting with a mystery man who goes by the moniker “PowerStation.” The man has an intricate plan designed to take down the U.S. electrical grid, and he’s looking for an international power broker willing to support his evil machinations.

(The official Vince Flynn website offers the first three chapters of “Total Power” for free, and you can sample them by clicking here.)

Meanwhile, Mitch Rapp is in Spain, hunting down associates of Sayid Halabi (the ISIS leader at the center of things in “Lethal Agent”). Mills provides us with an entertaining “action set piece” during this particular sequence (something reminiscent of a “Mission: Impossible” movie).

In fairly short order, “PowerStation” unleashes his sinister plan on the United States. Things fall into place like a tightly constructed Rube Goldberg machine.

I enjoy when Mills puts Rapp in a scenario with multiple tentacles — something with a scope and scale that exceeds the operator’s “tough guy” capabilities. 

This is why the “team” aspect of recent Rapp novels has become far more important. 

Obviously, there is Scott Coleman (along with the crew at SEAL Demolition and Salvage) who does a lot of the heavy lifting. In addition, CIA Director Irene Kennedy continues to be a guiding compass in these stories. 

But it is a cadre of smaller players who add depth and dimension to the novels. 

Some are long-recurring stalwarts (like tech whiz Marcus Dumond), while others pop up and are integrated in a more meaningful way as the stories progress (such as Rapp’s love interest Claudia Gould — a former operative and wife of the assassin who killed Rapp’s wife in “Consent To Kill”). 

Mills is equally adept at introducing new players. 

For example, the character development of sleeper agent Sonya Voronova was particularly interesting in “Total Power.” At first, I thought she was going to be a “one off” who wouldn’t last past the early pages in the narrative. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see the course Mills steered Voronova. 

I also liked the integration of the Jed Jones character. This Idaho survivalist served as a useful “utility” to dispense exposition in the story. 

He seemed like a character who could have stepped off the pages of the Pat Frank’s 1959 post-apocalyptic thriller “Alas, Babylon” (a fiction novel we were assigned to read as part of political science class I took at the University of Nebraska at Omaha).

I’m not going to delve into any of the particulars of the “Total Power” plot. I don’t want to spoil anything for readers eagerly awaiting the book. 

Current events definitely add a unique flavor to “Total Power.” The things we’ve experienced in 2020 — including strains on our supply chains and mass civil unrest — create a sense of verisimilitude as you read “Total Power.”  

The overall effect makes “Total Power” one of the more “frightening” thrillers I’ve read in recent years. 

Mills ingenious plot — combined with his clean writing style — makes for a compelling reading experience. 

It is my favorite of the six books Kyle Mills has written in the Rapp series, and my favorite thriller of the year (so far). 

“Total Power” amps up the suspense and overloads the reader with topical voltage that should resonate with thriller aficionados.

I had the opportunity to read the “Exclusive Mitch Rapp Ambassador Edition” of “Total Power” as part of the VinceFlynn.com’s “Mitch Rapp Ambassador” program. My wife and I have had the honor of being ambassadors the past two years, and have had fun being involved with our ambassadorial duties. 

For example, the official Vince Flynn Twitter account held a month-long contest last spring (dubbed #MitchMadness) where fans could vote for their favorite Vince Flynn novel cover in a head-to-head bracket contest. 

A number of the ambassadors recorded videos in support of one or more of the books. In this video, Bridget and I show our support for the 2006 “Act Of Treason” cover:

Kyle Mills recently signed a new three-book deal with Emily Bestler Books. I like the direction Mills has taken the series, and am looking forward to experiencing more of his stories in the future.

As much as I hate to see the summer end each year, I look toward the waning days with eager anticipation, knowing the latest Mitch Rapp thriller is on the way. 

Even if you’ve never read a Mitch Rapp thriller before, I think you’ll have a good time reading “Total Power.” 

I’ve pre-ordered a copy (two, in fact) of “Total Power” in hardcover. You can order your copy here.  

Totally recommended. 

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