ORDER TO KILL passes my “Steve Jones” test. The book is the second of Vince Flynn’s posthumous Mitch Rapp canon, which has been tendered to the very capable hands of Kyle Mills without a misstep or missing a beat. But it would be a terrific thriller in its own right if Rapp was Rapp with a different name and it was written by...Steve Jones. It’s a compulsive one-sit read with a plausible premise and enough vignettes full of explosions, gunplay and fisticuffs to fill three books.

"...a compulsive one-sit read with a plausible premise and enough vignettes full of explosions, gunplay and fisticuffs to fill three books.... ORDER TO KILL is everything you could want in a contemporary thriller novel..."

Both longtime fans of Rapp and those finding their way to this venerable series for the first time will be enamored with ORDER TO KILL. That plausible premise I mentioned? It’s been advanced in think tanks on at least one occasion and probably more. Heck, it’s our world. Russia is on the verge of internal collapse once again, slowly being brought down by the tag team of oil prices in freefall and economic sanctions. Maxim Krupin, the Russian president, has concocted a wild and brilliant scheme to clandestinely sew chaos in the Middle East with the hope of stepping into the aftermath and restoring Russia to its former economic glory. The instrument by which this plan is to be carried out is a Russian agent named Grisha Azarov, who is a bit of a wild card. While he doesn’t necessarily strain at the leash to which Krupin has him attached, he is bothered by his pull. Azarov has a skill set that is on par with and perhaps even exceeds that of Rapp, who is also on the wrong end of the twin barrels of age and residual injury.

The CIA isn’t quite sure what is up, or who is behind it. But after some initial stumbling around on the wrong foot, they get on the right track, after putting Rapp on the job of investigating and thwarting whatever it is that is stirring in the wrong part of the world. Azarov tries to get Rapp out of the way before Krupin’s plan gets rolling, but all it does is make Rapp angry. The result is a bit of the triptych globetrotting that we have come to know and love in this series. Here, we get to visit a good deal of the Middle East, including Iraq and Saudi Arabia, as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan, though for the most part we don’t see the areas that might fool you into thinking you’re in Club Med.

Rapp is not exactly a barrel of laughs, but he is extremely effective and, as always, compassionately ruthless, a classification that seems like an oxymoron but is totally applied to him. You just have to read ORDER TO KILL to see it properly illustrated. Rapp and Azarov do get their ultimate showdown, with a somewhat unexpected climax (or two). Not to give away the ending or anything, but if you’re not satisfied with this book, I can only say that while you may be a fan of thriller fiction, you may not have a pulse. Best to have it checked.

ORDER TO KILL is everything you could want in a contemporary thriller novel, and Mills demonstrates for a second time that he is the right man to keep the Rapp franchise moving into the future. It’s not a stretch at all to think of Flynn looking on approvingly. You will, too.