MEMORIAL DAY, ironically enough, was the perfect book to read over
the Fourth of July Weekend. It is as current as today's headlines,
and a welcome break from the fantasies of hygienically challenged
movie directors and the political aspirations of perfumed
princes.

Vince Flynn has made a career of writing espionage thrillers that
read as if they could be subtitled "The Real World for Dummies."
His creation, CIA operative Mitch Rapp (great name), is the type of
guy you hope and pray exists and is on our side. Rapp is a
pragmatist who is in constant trouble with everyone, from the
President on down, because he consistently refuses to color inside
the lines. If you've lost a wink of sleep over the fraternity
hazing, locker room towel-snap to which a few Iraqi prisoners of
war were subjected, you'll probably find Rapp's methods a bit
extreme. But Rapp is that rarity, a guy who does what needs to be
done in the most effective way possible. The fact that this
behavioral aberration on his part results in him saving the
country's bacon time after time never seems to enter into the
equation, at least with those who tend to treat terrorist acts as
grist for intellectual discussion and nothing more. The learning
curve is temporary, and steep, for those folks; Rapp's approach is
that he will go over them or through them if they do not get out of
the way.

Flynn and Rapp are at the top of their respective games in MEMORIAL
DAY. Intelligence indicates that a major terrorist attack is in the
offing. Rapp leads a daring --- and secret --- commando raid into
Pakistan to take out an al-Qaeda vipers' nest. That is just the
beginning of the story, however. Rapp and the Special Forces unit
he commands discover plans for a devastating nuclear attack on the
United States. Rapp acts quickly and decisively, and the attack is
thwarted. Or is it? Rapp feels that there are some loose ends to
the whole matter and, despite the best efforts of the career second
guessers and pencil pushers who have the ear of the President, soon
discovers that the plot is far deadlier than they thought --- and
that it is still operative. Rapp leads a team in a race against
time --- and against liberals in the President's cabinet --- to
thwart a plot aimed at the very highest levels of government.

Flynn demonstrates that he is an absolute master of his craft in
every way that matters. His writing style creates a work that is
built for speed; the pages fly by while the suspense quotient is
ratcheted so high that it makes your hair hurt. The title of the
book may be MEMORIAL DAY, but it's a novel for all seasons. Highly
recommended.