Why did I pick up this book? Months ago, I was at the bookstore looking for An Echo of Things to Come and King of Thorns, but I couldn't find either of those two books. So I started looking for another one to buy. I've read Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October and really liked it, so I thought I'd get another one of his books. I'm also a fan of military themed novels so this was right up my alley.

What did I like about this book? Tom Clancy can describe scenes so well with his writing. The firefight at the start of the story for instance, was very descriptive. I could picture Jack Ryan going through the motions, as if I was watching a TV show or movie.

The investigative work of law enforcement personnel was also an interesting read. Years before I saw ballistics being used in CSI, Tom Clancy has already described the process in his book that was published in 1987.

The little bits of info about the CIA and FBI, whether factual or not, were an interesting read for me.

His use of real world locations were fun too. I would occasionally pause my reading to bring up Google Maps, to see for myself what he was describing in the book. (I've done the same thing when reading Dan Brown's books.) I actually now want to visit the Naval Academy at Annapolis, just because I read about it in this book.

This was an old book and I knew that when I purchased it. One of my concerns was that it would feel outdated in today's age, but that wasn't the case. I actually enjoyed reading about Jack Ryan's manual transmission VW Rabbit, the old computers they had back then, the F-14 Tomcats which were popular back in the 80s, the flight in a Concorde supersonic plane, etc...

What I didn't like about this book? Not much to really complain about other than the pacing. I thought the story started up on a high note, but then slowed down to almost a crawl for a good number of chapters. Once the action resumed though it was a very engaging read all the way to the end.

Rating I'd give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars. If you like military themed novels or movies, you will enjoy this one.

Tags: #TomClancy #BookReview