Don Bentley

Don Bentley is an American thriller writer and former U.S. Army Apache helicopter pilot and FBI special agent whose military and law-enforcement background directly informs his fiction. He writes his own Matt Drake series of action thrillers and, since 2020, has continued the Mitch Rapp franchise created by the late Vince Flynn and previously carried forward by Kyle Mills, contributing novels including Enemy at the Gates, Cold Fury and Cruel Justice that keep the series' signature blend of counterterrorism tradecraft and relentless pacing. New readers coming to Mitch Rapp should start at the beginning of the original series with Vince Flynn's American Assassin rather than jumping into Bentley's installments, since the character's long backstory carries through; those wanting Bentley's own original voice should try his Matt Drake series instead. His firsthand military and intelligence experience gives his action sequences and tradecraft detail a level of technical authenticity reviewers frequently praise. There is no film or television adaptation of Bentley's own contributions specifically, though the Mitch Rapp franchise was adapted into the 2021 film American Assassin, based on Flynn's earlier novel.