Author. He is best remembered for his 'Mitch Rapp' (a fictitious counter-terrorism agent) series of political thriller novels that were published from 1999 to 2013. Born Vincent Joseph Flynn, he graduated in 1984 from the Saint Thomas Academy, an all male college-preparatory military high school in Mendota Heights, Minnesota and the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis-Saint Paul in 1989 with a degree in economics. After college he worked for Kraft Foods as an account and sales marketing specialist. In 1991, he left Kraft to pursue a career as an aviator with the United States Marine Corps but was medically disqualified from the Marine Corps Aviation Program due to seizures he had suffered following a childhood car accident. Diagnosed with dyslexia while in grade school, he forced himself into a daily writing and reading regimen to overcome it. After 2 years with a commercial real estate company, he decided to quit his job to write his first novel. While employed as a bartender in the St. Paul, Minnesota area, he completed his first book, "Term Limits" which he self-published, after being rejected numerous times by publishers. A year later Pocket Books, a Simon and Schuster imprint, published the hardcover edition of "Term Limits" and following a mass marketing campaign of the paperback version in 1999, it spent several weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. His subsequent works which started the 'Mitch Rapp' series, including "Transfer of Power" (1999), "The Third Option" (2000), and "Separation of Power" (2001), also appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, with "Separation of Power" reaching as high as #7. His fifth novel in the series, "Executive Power" (2003) was published in hardcover by Atria Books, followed by "Memorial Day" (2004), "Consent To Kill" (2005), "Act Of Treason" (2006), "Protect And Defend" (2007), and "Extreme Measures" (2008). With the exception of his first novel, his works centered around counter-terrorism agent Mitch Rapp. The level of specific detail displayed in his Mitch Rapp series at one point came under the scrutiny of the Department Of Energy (DOE), with "Memorial Day" actually garnering a security review by the DOE due to concerns that the book contained classified material surrounding nuclear security. His 'Mitch Rapp' series of novels continued with "Pursuit of Honor" (2009), "American Assassin" (2010), "Kill Shot" (2012), "The Last Man" (2012), and "The Survivor" (scheduled to be released in the Fall of 2013). In August 2010 he signed a two-book deal for a new series that he would have co-written with Brian Haig, a retired Army Lt. Colonel. On February 1, 2011 he announced that he was being treated for advanced Stage III prostate cancer. He was a frequent guest on the Glenn Beck program on the Fox News Channel and also served as a story consultant for the fifth season of the "24" television series. He died of prostate cancer at the age of 47.