The Last Man (Mitch Rapp #13) (audiobook) by Vince Flynn

Published by Simon and Schuster in 2012
Read by Armand Schultz
Duration: Approximately 6 hours
Abridged

In The Last Man, Vince Flynn takes a break from the Mitch Rapp prequels and puts Mitch right in the thick of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. He is brought in to investigate the disappearance (a presumed home invasion kidnapping) of Joe Rickman, the head of the CIA's clandestine operations in Afghanistan. In fact, he's been involved in so many clandestine operations that he could singlehandedly gut the intelligence agency's efforts in multiple countries around the world.

But, as Rapp and his team start to investigate they find that all of the pieces don't quite fit together. Add to that an FBI agent that believes that Rapp and Rickman have pocketed millions of dollars intended for intelligence efforts in Afghanistan and the reappearance of a deadly man from Rapp's past and you have the basis for a good story.

While the action is solid, there is too much posturing by Rapp and probably too much taken out of this abridged edition of the book. It is 6 hours compared to 12 hours in the unabridged version and the story most likely suffers a lot. The abridged version gets the highlights (Rapp shoots, fights, glowers, curses and throws righteous anger tantrums all over Afghanistan and Washington, D.C.).

There is much that is ridiculous in this book. I am assuming that the abridgement of the book took out all of the important non-action stuff that makes the book makes sense. For example, the bad guy is so blatantly cruel that you have to wonder who would ever want to work with him (at one point he determines that he will have to kill a woman simply because she is ugly - not because she knows too much, but because she knows too much and she is too ugly). Another time, Rapp is badly injured in the story but he recovers so quickly that I wondered why the injury was even worked into the story line in the first place.

So, my recommendation: spend a few more bucks and get the unabridged version of the audiobook. It will most likely be a better experience.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Last Man by Vince Flynn. 

Reviewed on December 22, 2012. Edited on January 19, 2025.

Note: I was sent a copy of this audiobook by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.