Point of View

Vince Flynn writes the Third Option in the third person omniscient, delving into the history of almost every character. The reader knows early on that the CIA drafted Mitch after his sweetheart died in the Lockerbie disaster, and that Hank Clark's alcoholic mother brought Hank up in a trailer park. Both Hank and Mitch are the main characters, so it is not unusual for Flynn to go into such detail on them; however, he also gives background stories to minor characters. For example Flynn treats the reader to a short story about how Jeff Duser became a contract killer. While in the Marines, Duser started a campaign against homosexuals, resulting in one impressionable youth killing someone. Jeff was immediately thrown out and has since worked as a freelance assassin.

Albert Rudin and Peter Cameron are two of the few characters he gives little insight into, and...