Twin Cities novelist Vince Flynn, left, greeted President George W. Bush when Bush arrived by Air Force One in Bloomington, Minn., in February, 2006. / Star Tribune photo by Renee Jones Schneider.
By Claude Peck
Add conservative radio and TV host Glenn Beck to the fan club of bestselling Twin Cities-based author Vince Flynn. Or call it a mutual-admiration society. As noted in a story in today's New York Times, Beck regularly invites authors, especially those with conservative politics, onto his radio and cable-TV shows. Beck hosted Flynn on his Fox News program in October to talk about Flynn's newest novel "Pursuit of Honor," in which hero and CIA agent Mitch Rapp smites terrorists who've killed Americans in Washington, D.C. In one scene in the book, Rapp goes before a Congressional committee to defend the use of harsh interrogation tactics against suspected terrorists. "It's almost conservative porn," Beck said of Flynn's book. Referring to Beck's promotion of books that dovetail with his political viewpoints, thriller writer Brad Thor told the Times, "He's our Oprah." Since Flynn already sells millions of books, it's not clear who's assisting whom in this arrangement, but Beck's fandom even extends to his tweets on Twitter, where he recently wrote, "Just finished Vince Flynn's new book. BEST YET." The Star Tribune interviewed Flynn in October. He talked about his closeness with Karl Rove and former President Bush, and identified the star he thinks should be cast as Rapp in the case of a movie based on Flynn's character. See the Q & A with Flynn here.
