American Assassin

With this 11th Mitch Rapp adventure, Flynn does something a little different. Taking a step back in time, he tells the story of how Rapp initially came to work for the CIA. As a young man, Rapp lost his fiancée in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103. Grief-stricken, he swears revenge on the terrorists. He's quickly recruited by the CIA and soon makes his first kill and is on his way to his first clandestine mission. George Guidall has a keen ear for dialogue, and his relaxed reading keeps Flynn's sometimes overheated prose and over-the-top plot grounded in a realm of believability. Still, he is more than capable of pulling out the stops when the action kicks in, keeping listeners on the edge of their seats once the bullets begin to fly. Flynn delivers his usual high-octane international thriller, but, in giving Rapp's backstory, he's infused it with more depth and heart than usual, and Guidall matches him beat for beat, proving himself a fine choice of storyteller. An Atria hardcover. (Oct.)