Vince Flynn made his mark writing about counter terrorism operative Mitch Rapp, who lives on the edge, undertakes seemingly insurmountable challenges, and eludes death. Yet, until this past year, the local novelist spent little time contemplating his own mortality.

In November 2010, Flynn returned to Minnesota after a grueling promotional tour of his 12th novel, “American Assassin.” He had been plagued by pain in his hip but attributed it to old sports injuries. In fact, the 44-year-old had Stage 3 metastatic prostate cancer, a disease that commonly afflicts men over age 65.