Book Review: Without Remorse (John Clark #01) by Tom Clancy

Amongst the many and varied characters that Tom Clancy created to surround and assist his hero, Jack Ryan, the most intriguing one – at least, to me – has always been the CIA officer John Clark. We know he’s a legend, and is always there, involved in audacious operations, but, for a long time, Clancy did little in the way of elaborating on what you knew was a very interesting, murky backstory.

Then came Without Remorse, chronologically the first book in the Tom Clancy universe. Set in the waning years of the Vietnam War. Featuring great cameos from James Greer, Bob Ritter and even a young Jack Ryan, tying Kelly’s backstory into the wider Clancy universe, it tells the story of John Terrence Kelly, former Navy SEAL, a decorated warrior, who is wandering around Baltimore after the death of his pregnant wife when he picks up a hitchhiker named Pam Madden. This event changes Kelly’s life forever, and sets into motion the avalanche of events that will see him join the Central Intelligence Agency and become the lethally effective Mr Clark.

Unbeknownst to Kelly at the time, Pam was a prostitute, had escaped from a group profiteering not just from the hire of girls, but also the growing drug trade. On a drive through Baltimore, they’re ambushed. Pam is killed and Kelly sustains horrific injuries from a shotgun blast.

In the hospital, the former SEAL decides to not leave the matter of Pam’s death in the hands of the Baltimore Police Department. Instead, he takes matters into his own hands, taking out various figures in the Baltimore drug underworld, all connected to the ring that Pam was forced to work for. In the hospital, Kelly meets the beautiful young nurse Sandra O’Toole, herself dealing with the loss of someone close: her husband, Tim, in Vietnam.

At the same time, in Vietnam, a covert prison camp is discovered by satellite imagery. Unlike the infamous Hanoi Hilton facility, the men who are kept in the covert camp have officially been listed as dead by the North Vietnamese Army. Colonel Robin Zacharias, a fighter pilot with extensive knowledge of America’s defense mechanisms, and is grilled for information by a Russian colonel.

When the CIA finds out about the camp, they put together an audacious operation, and one of the admirals in charge, Dutch Maxwell, is familiar with Kelly’s work from earlier in the war, and brings Kelly back into the fold, first to plan the mission, and then to go in early. But, as is often the case in Clancy novels, there’s an American agent working for the Russians, who betrays the mission. Kelly manages to capture the Russian on his way out, and is heavily involved in the hunt for the mole.

As the Baltimore body count continues to grow, there’s a great cameo from a young Jack Ryan, whose father, Emmet, is one of the investigating detectives, who eventually connect the dots, and have Kelly as their main suspect. The CIA offer Kelly a job, his relationship with Nurse O’Toole deepens, and everything comes to a head in the last twenty pages in what can only be described as an explosive ending.

Without Remorse is one of the darker Clancy stories. Kelly is very ruthless, but his character is redeemed by the way he deliberately avoids collateral damage, and completely rules out ever shooting a cop. He’s fuelled by thoughts of revenge against the framework of the drug organisation who killed Pam, and nothing more.

Clancy expertly writes Kelly in his vengeful drug dealer-killing frame of mind, and Kelly as a meticulous operational planner for the Vietnam mission, and then his relationship with O’Toole and the two doctors, Sam and Sarah Rosen. By the end, you’re left in no doubt as to Kelly/Clark being an honourable man – just one you wouldn’t want to make an enemy out of.

One negative: there are many sub-plots around Kelly’s story, most of which weren’t critical to the plot, and Clancy does tend to go overboard with each character’s musing. His elaborate description of various technologies that tend to make me lose a little concentration. If you can put up with that – and I could – you’re in for a real treat.

Without Remorse is a stellar read, and easily in my Top 3 favourite Clancy novels.

Book Review: Tom Clancy’s Commander in Chief by Mark Greaney

 

We lost a literary genius when Tom Clancy died, but Mark Greaney is doing a better-than-average job of keeping the vivid cast of characters – Jack Ryan, John Clark, Ding Chavez, Dan Murray and others – that Clancy created over the decades he spent releasing bestseller after bestseller, and a better job than I thought anyone could.

Greaney’s latest work, Commander in Chief, has Clancy’s name across the top of the cover, a sure way, you’d imagine, of getting people to buy the book. The fact that there’s subtext that says ‘A Jack Ryan Novel’ won’t hurt either, and, not surprisingly, the book is already a New York Times bestseller.

Perhaps not necessarily because of Clancy’s name adorning the cover in font bigger than anything, including the actual book title – although that would certainly help – but because it’s a damn good book, a “ripped straight from the headlines” affair that rockets along at a fantastic clip.

It’s a long novel but doesn’t drag at all, and in the tradition of Clancy, there are many things going on, and, in the last third, they all come together and make sense in the grand scheme of the novel’s plot, which is all to do with a desperate Russian president, Valeri Volodin, deciding to invade Lithuania, and possibly go further than that depending on the opposition he faces.

That opposition comes from the United States, and President Jack Ryan, who is enjoying his second stint in the White House. He’s obviously no fan of Volodin, and worried about what the Russian leader might do to get the power-brokers in that country back on side. The CIA analyst turned President – rightly – suspects that a series of seemingly-random attacks on oil rigs, natural gas facilities, political assassinations and more is being orchestrated by Volodin and Russia as part of a destabilisation campaign prior to an invasion.

Of course, it takes a while for President Ryan’s advisors to completely buy his theory, and it’s pretty much too late, then, because, after most NATO nations voted to not send extra troops into Lithuania to guard against a Russian invasion. Whoops! The invasion comes, and it takes a pretty amazing piece of software to allow the American, Swedish and Lithuanian troops to prevail.

Jack Ryan Jr. and the covert intelligence agency he works for – The Campus, run by Gerry Hendley – has a large part to play in the story, aided by his cousin, Dom Caruso, as well as Ding Chavez and an aging John Clark. The man formerly known as John Kelly is sixty-seven now, but still a formidable opponent for anyone, and Clark, my favourite character from the Clancy universe, has plenty to do in this one.

Other veteran characters, Mary-Pat Foley and Scott Adler have limited roles, and Dan Murray, now Ryan’s attorney general, barely gets a paragraph in this one. That’s a minor disappointment in a book that moves all throughout the world, with our heroes and heroines dealing with contract killers, (Australian!) BitCoin experts, money launderers, stubborn politicians and, of course, Volodin’s army and navy.

Commander in Chief is a hard book to put down, and every Greaney book I read leaves me more and more convinced that he’s exactly the right guy – the only guy – to carry on the Clancy legacy. I’ve got a feeling that Tom would be proud of this one.

Book Review: Tom Clancy’s Under Fire by Grant Blackwood

Whilst no one can approach the heights of the great man Tom Clancy himself – he was undoubtedly a master of intricate storytelling that blends the realms of military, espionage and politics into one great saga – I’ve generally enjoyed the books either co-written by Clancy with another author, or simply by chosen authors after Clancy’s untimely death, glad that at least the Clancy characters are still having their stories told. 

I read Dead or Alive, written by Grant Blackwood, with some limited input from Clancy, a few years ago, and found it very entertaining. So, I figured I’d enjoy Under Fire, as it was also penned by Blackwood. Except that I didn’t. There just wasn't any real pizzazz to the book! I kept soldering on, hoping that in the middle or towards the end, the plot would pick up and make it really worth my while, but it didn’t happen. I kept on right to the last page because, well…I’m stubborn like that.

The plot revolves around a planned coup in the country of Dagestan, Jack Ryan Jr. is dragged unwittingly into a confusing and murky world, because his best friend from their childhood days, Seth Gregory, is also knee-deep in trying to ensure the Dagestanis achieve their desired independence. That effort is being helped along by the CIA, who believe an independent Dagestan will further destabilise Russia and their ambitious president Valeri Volodin.

There’s plenty of double-crossing, and action, and the writing isn’t bad, it just didn’t grab me like these sorts of books usually do. I expected more. By no means is this the worst book I’ve ever read, it’s just that I’m used to a different level from the Clancy universe, and despite the appearance of a few old faces – John Clark and Dom Caruso, chief amongst them – it just didn’t feel like the other entries into the Jack Ryan universe. And there just didn’t seem to be any of the frantic urgency that I’ve come to expect.

(As an aside, am I the only one who finds it completely implausible that the son of the current President of the United States, can work for a clandestine intelligence agency, and not be shadowed everywhere by Secret Service? Generally, I’ll suspend belief for the sake of the good story, but this one wasn't great, so it got me thinking!)

I’m hoping that Mark Greaney’s Commander in Chief, the latest release in the Clancy universe redeems the franchise.