JAMES FLYNN (2018)

James Flynn is an agent with the British Secret Service.

He holds the designation of '00' which means, as we all know so well, that he is licensed to kill on behalf of Her Majesty's Secret Service. When we meet him for the first time, he is extremely restless being forced to lounge around headquarters without a mission; forced to occupy his time, and satisfy his baser urges, by sneaking out of his room, climb up or over or under whatever obstacles might block him, to make his way into the boudoirs of the pretty young ladies who also work in that facility. He does so while earnestly asking his boss, "N", for an assignment, "Surely, there's still danger in the world. Master criminals. Terrorists. Rogue governments. Someone could be plotting to steal a nuclear submarine. Or rob Fort Knox. Or build a killer satellite to level New York City. I'm a double-O. I need to be out there. That's what I'm trained for. To do whatever is necessary".

Or not!

James Flynn is a inpatient resident of a psychiatric hospital, large because he believes totally that the facts mentions above is the absolute truth. It isn't, of course. He is but one of the many residents of the City of Roses Psychiatrick Institute, run by the much put-upon Dr. Nickelson, whom Flynn repeatedly calls 'N'. 'N' is the unfortunate administrator who has to repeatedly deal with Flynn's demands for actions as well as dismiss the young nurses who seem unable to withstand the charm and allure of the admittedly very handsome Flynn, especially when he frequently goes about wearing a tux.

A couple of other patients who play a role in the adventure where we meet Flynn are "a beautiful, fragile-looking twenty-two-year-old named Dulcie, and Q, a skinny, wild-eyed seventy-seven-year-old with a scraggly white beard". Dulcie is in because of an addition to meth, dealt to her by her biker boyfriend and abuser, Mike. Q is in because he believes he has invented many things over the years such as the zipper, the microchip, and the corn dog. It will be when both of these important people disappear from the Institude/Headquarters one morning that Flynn decides the mission must be to rescue them from whoever kidnapped them, Q for his new technology of brainwashing and Dulcie to keep Q in line.

Also being of considerable importance to the chain of events is Sancho, one of the orderlies at the hospital and someone who has become a friend of Flynn, despite being well aware of the man's crazy beliefs. This unfortunate fellow will find himself inadvertently whisked into the flow of events when Flynn decides Sancho is an agent-trainee assigned to Flynn.

It would have been so easy to make Flynn a buffoon, which the author does not because Flynn is not. It would have been just as easy to make him the perfect spy able to perform the impossible as second nature, which the author does not because Flynn is shown to be very human and fallible. The author does not take the easy route but he takes the fun one - fun for me the reader.

Flynn's mental illness makes him believe he is a highly trained super agent and he works very hard at staying in shape to be able to perform those superb feats of athleticsm and derring-do that he believes he will be called upon to do. He is also very intelligent and observant, all within his delusion. As a result, he is physically capable. He has not, however, had any training or real experience so things sometimes do not go as he expects. But the key to the enjoyable aspect of this series is that they sometimes do.

He accidentally gets involved in a major secret undertaking of a crime boss which will have major impact on the world's economy. He thinks it is all just part of his mission and goes about trying to stop it. On the flip side, they take him at his word because there is evidence backing up his delusion and no reason to not believe it. For a while. Then it gets really interesting.

The second book was also a hoot. Flynn, under medication, has returned to somewhat normal but normal is really nothing to be desired. The wish by the reader (me) for Flynn to go back to the way he was eventually gets answered but in a wonderfully, and chillying way.

I do not know if the author will be able to come up with a third book but then again, I would not have expected the first or the second to be as darn good as they were so I am not counting the author out on this. Nor Flynn.