“Rapp didn’t make a practice of asking the Almighty for help, but he wouldn’t turn down an extra magazine or two right about now.”
Last year I had the opportunity to meet thriller scribes Kyle Mills and Don Bentley at a tour event in support of the release of the Mitch Rapp novel “Code Red” at Once Upon a Crime — a neat little hole-in-the-wall bookstore in Uptown Minneapolis.
Bridget surprised me with the trip. It had been a difficult year for a number of reasons. My dad’s death the previous December had been hard on me, and I just hadn’t been feeling like myself.
“Code Red” was set to be Mills’ last entry in Vince Flynn’s venerable book series (Flynn died of prostate cancer in 2013). Mills had decided to move on after penning nine Mitch Rapp novels, and was set to hand the writing duties over to Bentley.
We drove up to the Twin Cities from Omaha that Sept. 12 morning, checked into our hotel next to the Mall of America (we planned to visit IKEA the next day), and made our way to the event in harried rush hour traffic.
It turned out to be a terrific experience.
In addition to having the chance to chat with Mills and Bentley during the signing (and introduce ourselves to fellow fans we’ve gotten to know on social media), we also had the opportunity to meet Flynn’s widow Lysa and her husband — both were incredibly down-to-earth and gracious and even offered some suggestions for places to eat after the event.
At the time, it seemed like it would be an eternity until Bentley’s first entry in the series was published.
But life’s clock has an uncanny ability to turn faster as you get older, and it feels like it has only been a few ticks since last year’s release.
I’ve had the pleasure of consuming an advance reader copy of “Capture or Kill” the past few weeks as part of the Mitch Rapp Ambassador program. The novel will be available at retailers on Sept. 3 (preorder your copy here).
In “Capture or Kill,” Bentley takes readers back to 2011, a decade into the War on Terror and a point when Vince Flynn’s literary career was at its zenith.
The novel is centered around the real-life raid by U.S. Navy SEALs on Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2, 2011.
When I first heard about the premise for the story, I was curious about how Bentley would handle the narrative structure. Real-life events can be a tricky thing for an author to navigate around — especially an operation this specific.
But Bentley — who has written four novels in his Matt Drake series and four Jack Ryan, Jr. novels in the Tom Clancy franchise since 2020 — is able to steer the plot effectively.
Bentley’s military experience is present throughout “Capture or Kill.” He went to Ohio State on an ROTC scholarship and spent a decade in the Army as an Apache pilot after graduation.
While serving as a Troop Commander in Afghanistan, Bentley had first-hand experience in the ill-fated Operation Red Wings. I first recall reading about that SEAL Team 10 operation in Marcus Luttrell’s book “Lone Survivor” (later a movie starring Mark Wahlberg).
Bentley talks about that operation in an emotional interview with author Jack Carr on the “Danger Close” podcast:
The stetson-wearing Apache pilots make an appearance in “Capture or Kill.” (I don’t know if “Surf and Turf Fridays” were a real thing when Don served, but the mention definitely made my salivary glands perk up.)
It’s neat that Bentley chose to feature the multi-role attack helicopters he flew in combat. He also features other notable aircraft in the story, including the CH-47 Chinook helicopter.
Bentley manages to strike a nice balance between the ballsy tradecraft Flynn’s loyal followers have come to love and the nitty-gritty details on military operations that epitomize some of the great novels in the genre.
The overall effect is Mitch Rapp novel that is less shaken and more stirred.
In addition to a number of old favorites, we also get to meet some new characters in “Capture or Kill.”
I particularly enjoyed covert operative Noreen Ahmed and Sgt. Fred Saxton, a feisty Army Ranger.
Bentley tosses in a couple of creative nods to fellow thriller writers Nick Petrie and Mark Greaney. He even finds a way to get his own son in on the action in “Capture or Kill”…
…and there are a number of additional surprises along the way!
I first started reading this breed of novel in 1989 when I was a sophomore in high school. I fondly recall pre-ordering a copy of “Clear and Present Danger” later that year at a Waldenbooks a couple blocks from our home.
Bridget and I started dating the following year. One of her brothers was in the Marine Corps at the time (he currently works for a three-letter agency). Her father and his twin brother had the honor of marching in President John F. Kennedy’s Inauguration Day parade when they served in the Army.
Both of us have enjoyed stories about the men and women who work diligently each day to protect our freedoms. I know Vince Flynn felt the same way when he published his first novel (“Term Limits”) in 1997.
That spirit is still on display after all these years in “Capture or Kill.” Bentley gives Flynn’s Rapp series a shot of retro adrenaline, and the narrative choice pays dividends for readers in the end.
“He was simply providing an estimate in the same manner a good home contractor could eyeball a kitchen and ballpark the remodeling cost. Rapp was a craftsman and killing was his craft.”
It will be interesting to see where Bentley takes Mitch Rapp in future novels. The character was facing something of an existential dilemma after Mills’ last two entries in the series. Can the family man that Mitch has become stay as sharp as he once was?
“Capture or Kill” reminds us how effective and entertaining Rapp can be when he is out there as the proverbial “tip of the spear.”
I can’t wait to see what Don Bentley has in store for readers next year…!
Order your copy of “Capture or Kill” here.
To learn more about Don Bentley, visit his website www.donbentley.com, and to learn more about Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp novels, visit www.vinceflynn.com.
>> If you enjoyed this review of Don Bentley’s “Capture or Kill,” be sure to follow me on Twitter/X: @TheJonCrunch
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