Commander in Chief
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

The convention of using a dead author's name in titles of books that use that author's characters is always awkward, and so it remains here in a construction that makes it sound like the late Clancy has returned to life as the commander in chief of something, perhaps the U.S. armed forces. In fact, brand identification aside, the latest Jack Ryan thriller, written by veteran Clancy impersonator Greaney, finds Ryan, the fictional commander in chief and U.S. president, racing against time to stop Russia's megalomaniacal president from carrying out a global terror plot designed to move Russia to the top of the political food chain. Greaney writes this one like a typical Clancy thriller: lots of expository prose, lots of technical jargon, lots of political and military background, plenty of action, and characters who are more like composites of traits than actual people. On the other hand, Greaney also imbues his prose with the same gusto and sheer conviction that Clancy did. We believe the (rather implausible) story because the author seems to believe it. And if we're fans of the long-running Jack Ryan series, we'll like this one very much.--Pitt, David Copyright 2016 Booklist

Greaney has a lot of pages to fill in his third solo Tom Clancy novel (after 2014's Tom Clancy: Full Force and Effect). That he manages it without being boring shows that he's well qualified to continue the adventures of Jack Ryan and son. Jack Sr., still the U.S. president, has more of a role than in recent entries, but most of the heroics are performed by Jack Jr., who's been slowly rising in the ranks of the secret organization known as the Campus. Russian president Valeri Volodin, once again the villain, has half a dozen perfidious plots aimed at restoring Russia to its position of greatness. One threat is to plant a new super-secret Russian submarine with 120 nuclear warheads in the waters off Washington, D.C. In the best tradition of Clancy, Greaney capably lays out the groundwork for these machinations before setting them all in entertaining motion. Fans of military action thrillers will be well satisfied. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.