Product Description

Taking America back...one politician at a time TERM LIMITS In one bloody night, three of Washington's most powerful politicians are executed with surgical precision. Their assassins then deliver a shocking ultimatum to the American government: set aside partisan politics and restore power to the people. No one, they warn, is out of their reach -- not even the president. A joint FBI-CIA task force reveals the killers are elite military commandos, but no one knows exactly who they are or when they will strike next. Only Michael O'Rourke, a former U.S. Marine and freshman congressman, holds a clue to the violence: a haunting incident in his own past with explosive implications for his country's future.... "Ingenious....Outpaces anything recently published, including Baldacci and Clancy." -- Florida Times-Union Includes an excerpt from Memorial Day, Vince Flynn's electrifying new hardcover

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7463 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 656 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780671023188
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Library Journal
Adequate production values and a serviceable reading by James Naughton cannot save this audiobook from a truly awful story that tries to pass off a rightist political manifesto with Fascist underpinnings as an entertaining thriller. The silly plot focuses on our hero, a macho U.S. Congressman, who punches out the National Security Advisor in the President's presence, spouts that slain U.S. Congressmen got what they deserved, calls Congressmen who oppose his agenda "pansies," and, finally, joins a plot to kill another Fed with assassins who just happen to include an old Marine buddy and the Congressman's own grandfather. The assassins are all just good Americans, demanding at one point that the President sponsor a crime bill, of all things, or else! They are noble reformers, with a dirty job to do, rubbing out corrupt politicians. This reactionary diatribe is not recommended.?Mark Pumphrey, Polk Cty. P.L., Columbus, NC
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
An underwhelming first technothrilleroriginally self-published. ``One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter,'' says Michael O'Rourke to his girlfriend, thus justifying the triple murder of a US senator and a pair of congressmen. They didn't deserve to live, he further insists, guilty as they were of mismanaging their country's business. In fact, virtually all politicians--Republicans and Democrats alike--are similarly guilty. Still, the assassinations are meant not merely as punishment but as a warning. Politicians had better shape up, be upright, set aside partisanship, and balance the budget. Or else. Young Michael, the hero of Flynn's dismal fable, is himself a congressman--the exception that proves the rule. He's sore at his government and has his reasons. His parents were killed in an automobile accident; the driver of the other car, it turned out, was a drunk, a repeat offender, who should have been off the streets, in jail. Due to the aforementioned mismanagement, however, the government can't build enough prisons. Nor is this mismanagement accidental; rather, its the inevitable result of self-serving cabals and wicked conspiracies. And as a variety of the aforesaid cabals maneuver to stop the terrorists, Michael finds himself caught squarely in the middle, very much on his own. While there are conspiracies galore here, much of the novel has an undercrafted feel to it: one-dimensional types, clumsy, often careless writing. (Flynn's heroine has ``big brown eyes''; a ``freedom fighter'' has ``bright blue eyes''--information delivered frequently, each time as if newly minted.) At length, the cabal is thwarted, the once misunderstood terrorist vindicated. ``You're not going to believe what's on this,'' Michael says, handing over the tape that reveals the depth of the conspiracy. He's right. A sure-fire hit for readers who share Flynns political outlook--the government as ogre. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
Danny O. Coulson founder of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team and author of No Heroes Term Limits makes Absolute Power look like child's play! -- Review

Customer Reviews

The beginnings of the master of the political thriller
By my count, Vince Flynn has written six poliical thrillers to date with a seventh due in October, 2005. I have now read all six published works in no particular order. "Term Limits" was, I believe, Flynn's debut work. Having read it last provides, I think, an interesting perspective on Flynn's work.

Five of the six Flynn novels feature Mitch Rapp, a very skillful assasin. "Term Limits" doesn't have Mitch Rapp, but it does feature many of the characters found in his later novels.

Straight out of the box, Flynn gives a unique voice to the political thriller. In his Washington, the politicians are generally loathsome, self-serving creatures lacking basic integrity, morality and values. All they live for are their greed and swaggering egos.

The book opens with the murder of Senator Fitzgerald, an obese, alcoholic senator intent on projecting his own power even when, as in this case, it leads to the deaths of American solidiers.

Fitzgerald's neck is expertly broken in his home. Within hours two other equally corrupt politicians are murdered. The murderers issue a set of demands calling for the executive and legislative branches to acheive certain political goals. As in all Flynn novels, these goals resonate with ordinary Americans.

The CIA and FBI come into play to solve the crimes. But President Stevens' Chief of Staff and National Security Advisor don't necessarily want the murders solved. In fact, they think more murders would help President Stevens achieve re-election.

Michael O'Rourke, a first-term Congressman from Minnesota has alrady turned down the President's invitation to vote for his overblown, bloated budget. O'Rourke, a decent man, has an idea of who the assasins might be. A former Marine he recognizes the killing techniques as those American Special Forces might use.

Director Stansfield of the CIA and his assistant Irene Kennedy, head of counter terrorism efforts pursue the leads in conjunction with Director Roach of the FBI and Special Agent McMahon. All of these characters live on in Flynn's subsequent novels and I am glad they do.

The suspense is riveting. Is the President involved in the brutal murders of Senator Olson and a "clean polirtics" Representative? Will the White House succeed in its attempts to manipulate public opinion?

Flynn's Washington is a place of distrust, dishonor, duplicity, hypocrisy and murder. He is, in my opinion, the best crafter of political thrillers in the business today, putting Tom Clancy (except for "Red October") to shame.

In "Term Limits," we see Flynn gathering his strength for later efforts. In all the other Flynn novels, the characters literally jump off the page. "Term Limits" has one minor character who doesn't quite have it. The political cynicism of Flynn's subsequent novels are sharply drawn: you can recognize many of the repulsive characters as being modeled on politicians whom we are all too familiar with from the daily news. In "Term Limits" only one politician, the alcoholic, self-interested, hypocritical, immoral Senator whose death opens the book triggers immediate recognition with its real prototype.

The plot is tight. Flynn simply doesn't require that his characters have fortuitous, unbelievable inventions to adcvance the story. His plots are simply exquisite. (One of my particular irritants are authors who use scenes involving food and drink as bridges to let the characters expound. Jack Higgins and Clive Cussler in their latest novels overuse these devices: Flynn simply doesn't need them.)

"Term Limits" is a true page-turner. I intended to spend an hour with it as bedtime reading --- and it kept me glued till dawm. What higher compliment can I pay to Vince Flynn? Oh yes, the same thing happened when I read his other five novels.

Jerry

Plausible in every way!
Term Limits is fast paced and filled with scenarios that both can and probably have happened. This realistic view of political power makes events that seem impossible to the once naïve public feasible and all too real.

Assassinations rock the U. S. President, Secret Service, Cabinet, FBI, and CIA when three are carried out on a single night. Ignoring the ultimatum issued by the "terrorists" causes a fourth man to die and puts the President in the line of fire. Fear triggers tempers as the administration determines if it should make changes that yield to blackmail? Then two more men are murdered, but where only the four specific targets were taken out in the first wave, these also include law enforcement guards.

Questions power the plot; drama moves it forward; action demands reading even though your eyes are tired and burn; the characters are interesting and multi-dimensional.
* Why isn't the budget balanced?
* Why do the Republicans and Democrats care more about special interest groups than the constituents who voted them in?
* Who has the power in the White House?
* Who runs Black Ops, and what power is used to maintain the secrecy of an organization in their clandestine operations.
* Is anyone capable of controlling them, and are personal agendas the root of military and covert actions?
* Is this story too real to be ignored?
* How many groups are behind the assassinations?

Any spare minute found me reading this novel. When I finished it, I was satisfied. The story was complete, the questions answered, I am interested in what's next for these characters -- they became real. Five stars to Vince Flynn, and the knowledge that I will buy more of his books.

Victoria Tarrani

Action Packed.
Vince Flynn manages to keep the action moving at break-neck speed for over 600 pages. There are practically no slow spots. The premise is fairly preposterous, and the climax totally unbelievable, but who cares? This is fiction, and an exciting and enjoyable read. There are more plot twists than a Clinton Presidency and more shoot-'em-ups than a Clint Eastwood movie. Vince doesn't even slow down long enough for any kissy-face.

The comparison to Tom Clancy is inescapable, so here goes. While the writing quality in Term Limits is professional, I have the sense after reading numerous Clancy novels that his language skills are bit more high brow. There is a higher level of sophistication in Clancy books. And while Flynn obviously did a lot of research, Clancy does more. But for that reason, many readers will prefer Flynn's books. Clancy tends to focus more on technology; Flynn goes right for the gut. Action, action, action.

This is a must-read for political thriller lovers, and a good choice for all other suspense fiction readers. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.