Review - Code Red by Kyle Mills

We’ve come to the end of the road with Kyle Mills at the helm of Mitch Rapp’s world.

Starting with The Survivor, Mills took over after Vince Flynn’s passing and did the series justice. Not only has he developed the Mitch Rapp universe, but he also stayed true to what Flynn created. I applaud Mills for keeping Flynn’s voice and influence a prevalent piece of all the novels in the series that are credited to him.

Now, for Code Red.

Russia (seems to be a theme this year). Syria. Mexican drug lord. And, Mitch Rapp in the middle of it all.

This book is everything we’ve come to expect with Mills behind the wheel. From the very beginning, Mills give us action, but it isn’t action for actions sake. You can tell it is building toward a climax. Mills has done this masterfully with all his books.

Minor spoiler here.

One thing I enjoyed about this book was getting to see Rapp get back to his roots and be the one-man show for much of the novel. He eventually brings Scott Coleman and crew in, but for the vast majority of the novel, it’s just Rapp doing what Rapp does.

Mills does a great job of continuing to develop Rapp’s character too. We see him being introspective at certain points because of Claudia and Anna. Mills is showing us that Rapp is evolving. He’s getting older and looking at life from a different lens.

I also appreciate the fact the Mills shows us, in very minor ways, that Rapp is in fact getting older. He’s not the youthful, triathlete we were introduced to in American Assassin. He’s aged and Mills does a great job of giving us little morsels that let us know that Rapp isn’t a robot.

With Code Red, Mills certainly put an exclamation point on his time as Mitch Rapp’s handler. While Mills will be missed, I know Mitch Rapp’s fans will not be disappointed when we get to see where Don Bentley takes one of the best series of the genre.