Oath of office

Cameron's so-so second contribution to Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan franchise (after 2017's Tom Clancy: Power and Empire) centers on an insurgency movement in Iran. Erik Dovzhenko, a reluctant Russian spy stationed in Tehran, chooses to defect when his dissident lover, Maryam Farhad, is killed by Revolutionary Guards. Erik escapes to Afghanistan to warn Maryam's friend Ysabel Kashani, who in turn contacts her former lover, Jack Ryan Jr., the U.S. president's son. Jack Jr. travels to Iran, where he meets Erik and Ysabel-and seeks to intercept two hijacked Russian nuclear missiles, which he and his compatriots from the Campus, a covert antiterrorism organization, have been tracking. The main action builds to an extremely clever twist. Meanwhile, in random interludes, President Ryan deals with an attack on the American embassy in Cameroon and the attempted assassination of a political rival. Maybe, once Ryan has finished his term in office and can do more than sit resolute behind a desk, he will again excite readers. Agent: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, WME. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

The spirit of Tom Clancy lives on as two generations of Jack Ryans continue to save America's cookies (Power and Empire, 2017, etc.) in this doorstop-sized thriller.President Jack Ryan has plenty of domestic problemsflooding down South, an outbreak of flu, faked videos showing him in a bad light, and the hateful Sen. Michelle Chadwick, who spouts dangerous lies about him. Certain Russians want to kill Chadwick and cause Ryan to be blamed. (Ha! As if the Ruskies would ever interfere in America's business.) Meanwhile, Jack Junior, "the first born son of the immortal Jack Ryan," is in the middle of the action overseas. An American woman is kidnapped in Cameroon. In Portugal, Junior's cohort Ding Chavez surveils an "international arms dealer and fat man of intrigue" who is conspiring with the Russians on an incredibly profitable scheme involving nukes for Iran. A Russian aircraft vanishes, probably carrying nuclear material. The story has the staple characters such as John Clark, Ding, and Mary Pat Foley, but more interesting are the lesser folk like Lucile Fournier, the sexy killer and self-described "very nasty woman," to whom readers had best not get too attached. There is Yazdani, the desperate father of a child with cystic fibrosis, who will trade military secrets for medicine if only he can trust Jack Junior. And Ysabel, who might be the love of Junior's life if only he had the time. But no one reads Clancy for romance, anyway. Readers want global conflicts, fight scenes, and heroics. The Ryans are the idealized American heroesthey may be imperfect like you and me, but they have no fundamental flaws and even tolerate their haters: "Kindness came naturally to [President] Jack Ryan," but bad guys "do not want to test me." Author Cameron's storytelling is indistinguishable from the late Clancy's, down to infodumps that bulk up what could be a much shorter novel.An enjoyable read for Clancy fans. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The Ayatollah's power in Iran is subsiding, a Persian Spring blossoms brightly, and the Campus casts its eye on an international arms dealer stepping into the power vacuum.

In President Jack Ryan's latest outing, a truly evil pharmaceutical billionaire spends big bucks supporting various radical groups whose violence is meant to distract officials as he floods the U.S. market with counterfeit drugs. Now that people are dying of bad medicine, he sets in motion the ultimate power grab, which means getting rid of the president himself.

Cameron's so-so second contribution to Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan franchise (after 2017's Tom Clancy: Power and Empire) centers on an insurgency movement in Iran. Erik Dovzhenko, a reluctant Russian spy stationed in Tehran, chooses to defect when his dissident lover, Maryam Farhad, is killed by Revolutionary Guards. Erik escapes to Afghanistan to warn Maryam's friend Ysabel Kashani, who in turn contacts her former lover, Jack Ryan Jr., the U.S. president's son. Jack Jr. travels to Iran, where he meets Erik and Ysabel—and seeks to intercept two hijacked Russian nuclear missiles, which he and his compatriots from the Campus, a covert antiterrorism organization, have been tracking. The main action builds to an extremely clever twist. Meanwhile, in random interludes, President Ryan deals with an attack on the American embassy in Cameroon and the attempted assassination of a political rival. Maybe, once Ryan has finished his term in office and can do more than sit resolute behind a desk, he will again excite readers. Agent: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, WME. (Nov.)

Bestseller Cameron's admirable if flawed fifth Jack Ryan novel (after 2020's Shadow of the Dragon) injects new blood into the late Tom Clancy's signature franchise. President Jack Ryan's efforts to push a protectionist pharmaceutical bill through Congress alarms greedy billionaire Harjit Malhotra, whose pending sale of his generic drug manufacturing company, which would increase his wealth tenfold, is under threat from the legislation. In order to distract the president from ensuring its passage, Malhotra hires Señor Gil, the founder of the Camarilla, a secretive cadre of ruthless mercenaries, to abduct First Lady Cathy Ryan, among other no-less-violent crimes. Cameron skillfully depicts the audacious and bloody kidnapping, but it's all in service of weak and contrived motives, which a last-second gotcha moment makes superfluous anyway. Jack Ryan Jr., a member of the Campus, "an off-the-books quasigovernmental intelligence organization," is mostly background noise, though Cameron introduces new Campus members, who are developed enough to merit their own series. Readers will hope for a more worthy foe in the next entry. Agent: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, WME. (Nov.)