Trump Revealed
By Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher. (Scribner, 448 pages, $28.)
The pundits scoffed when Donald Trump announced his presidential candidacy, but they were proved wrong. The Washington Post responded by scrambling more than 20 reporters, two fact-checkers and three editors to produce an instant biography.
"Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money and Power" by Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher charts Trump's rise from trainee in his father's apartment business in New York's outer boroughs to billionaire Manhattan real estate mogul, tabloid celebrity, TV star and GOP presidential nominee.
The authors attribute Trump's business achievements to his visionary ideas, his willingness to take risks, the creation of key alliances and his ability to charm, persuade and market himself as a talisman of success and wealth. But there were also equal doses of deceit, threats, defaults, bankruptcies and bailouts by his lenders and father.
Although the book was written hurriedly and by committee, it's a smooth read that dives deep into his personal life and business record. The Donald, of course, was prime tabloid fodder — attention that he loved and fueled by feeding gossipy items about his love life, marriages and divorces to reporters in phone calls in which he pretended to be a Trump confidant named John Barron.
While his misogynistic attitudes toward women have been well-documented, the book also credits him with giving women (including his wives) top jobs in his business empire.
The book also chronicles his transformation from ridiculed playboy to billionaire with a reputation (however wrong) as a business genius who's also able to connect with taxi drivers and other working stiffs (which is true).
But for those who expect that Trump will bring a Midas touch to the White House, the book points out his history of jumping into areas where he had no expertise — casinos, an airline, a pro football team — and making promises that these ventures would be the greatest, only to find himself in over his head, overextended and failing.
Dennis J. McGrath
Vince Flynn's Order to Kill: A Mitch Rapp Novel
By Kyle Mills. (Atria, 374 pages, $28.99.)
Much as Tom Clancy became a brand following his death, so too has Minnesota's Vince Flynn, who died in 2013. In author Kyle Mills' able hands, Flynn's patrimony continues with all of the heart-pounding action and in-your-face plot twists fans have grown to love.
In "Order to Kill," the indefatigable Mitch Rapp, the CIA's most accomplished black-ops agent, is on the hunt for loose Pakistani warheads, which Washington fears will end up in the hands of Islamic extremists. Pakistan's army moves the weapons around the country to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands, but the problem is that Pakistan's army leader is himself the wrong hands. Moreover, he's plotting a coup against the weak-kneed civilian president, who is an ally of the United States.
Rapp isn't the only player. Russia's president, Maxim Krupin, who bears a striking resemblance to you-know-who, has deployed his own black-ops killer, the insidiously lethal Grisha Azarov, to eliminate Rapp and put Moscow's plans to roil the entire Middle East into action.
Mills is an expert at this kind of intrigue, leading readers down blind alleys and into worldwide locales as the story picks up steam. In a characteristically daring move, Rapp penetrates deep into Iraq disguised as an American ISIS recruit. What follows is nonstop action that leaves the reader burning through the pages. It's a terrific, satisfying read that is executed handsomely. Flynn's brainchild is in excellent hands.
Michael J. Bonafield
