It’s assembly-line Clancy: high-quality entertainment, few surprises.
President Jack Ryan and son save the world again in this latest Tom Clancy thriller by Maden.
“Alive, not dead.” That is young Jack’s task in South Korea— to bring a bad guy back for interrogation—but he knows there’s “a long, nasty road of hurt” between life and death. Later, he’s in a Barcelona restaurant sipping vermut when he unexpectedly meets an old flame. They chat, and he leaves just before an explosion kills everyone inside. Rushing back—because that’s what Ryans do—he hears his dying friend whisper “Sammler.” Enraged, he will stop at nothing to find her killer. Later on, a woman from Spain’s security service also dies in Jack’s presence. No wonder he’s single; the guy’s a walking danger zone. In typical Clancy style, the action spans four continents and the Pacific Ocean, where a container ship carrying illegal cargo is sunk. In “a new kind of piracy,” drones disguised as tiger sharks sink enough ships to warrant the attention of President Ryan, whom one character calls “sharp as a tack, and blunt as a hammer.” That’s much better than what a bad guy calls his son: “this Ryan asshole.” Father and son go to great lengths to keep their relationship from being known, yet it’s still curious that no one seems to noodle on the idea they might look alike for a reason. A geek named Gavin, a “one-man wrecking machine when it came to hacking,” pointlessly reminds Jack that he’s “not authorized to do anything.” If Jack follows that advice, half the story disappears. The ultimate stakes are much higher than sunken ships: The theft of trillions of dollars may cause an “economic apocalypse,” and what’s a Clancy thriller without a ticking clock (Jack’s watch, really) and a threat of World War III? Fast action and dead bodies abound in this enjoyable bit of hero worship.
It’s assembly-line Clancy: high-quality entertainment, few surprises.Pub Date: June 9, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-18806-4
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A weird, wild ride.
Celebrity scandal and a haunted lake drive the narrative in this bestselling author’s latest serving of subtly ironic suspense.
Sager’s debut, Final Girls (2017), was fun and beautifully crafted. His most recent novels—Home Before Dark (2020) and Survive the Night (2021) —have been fun and a bit rickety. His new novel fits that mold. Narrator Casey Fletcher grew up watching her mother dazzle audiences, and then she became an actor herself. While she never achieves the “America’s sweetheart” status her mother enjoyed, Casey makes a career out of bit parts in movies and on TV and meatier parts onstage. Then the death of her husband sends her into an alcoholic spiral that ends with her getting fired from a Broadway play. When paparazzi document her substance abuse, her mother exiles her to the family retreat in Vermont. Casey has a dry, droll perspective that persists until circumstances overwhelm her, and if you’re getting a Carrie Fisher vibe from Casey Fletcher, that is almost certainly not an accident. Once in Vermont, she passes the time drinking bourbon and watching the former supermodel and the tech mogul who live across the lake through a pair of binoculars. Casey befriends Katherine Royce after rescuing her when she almost drowns and soon concludes that all is not well in Katherine and Tom’s marriage. Then Katherine disappears….It would be unfair to say too much about what happens next, but creepy coincidences start piling up, and eventually, Casey has to face the possibility that maybe some of the eerie legends about Lake Greene might have some truth to them. Sager certainly delivers a lot of twists, and he ventures into what is, for him, new territory. Are there some things that don’t quite add up at the end? Maybe, but asking that question does nothing but spoil a highly entertaining read.
A weird, wild ride.Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-18319-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
Come for the forensics, stay for the nonhumans.
A Christmas bout between Kay Scarpetta and the Phantom Slasher.
But first, Scarpetta, Virginia’s chief medical examiner, has to figure out how software designer Rowdy O’Leary died. Fished from the Potomac River on Christmas Eve six years after a hit-and-run driver left him permanently disabled and a week after he plunked down the cash for a pricey emerald ring, he fell off his fishing perch and drowned—or did he? Scarpetta’s examination of his body is cut short by two disturbing developments: the discovery of an unidentified woman’s remains buried on the grounds of Mercy Psychiatric Hospital, and celebrity TV reporter Dana Diletti’s report that the red-eyed ghost associated with the Slasher’s three murders has floated through the window of her home. She’s got video, too, and the apparition looks real and scary. The final blow to Scarpetta’s plans for a Christmas getaway with her husband, Secret Service forensic psychologist Benton Wesley, is an attack on an Alexandria home that kills Mercy psychiatrist Georgine Duvall, who used to treat Scarpetta’s niece, Lucy Farinelli, and nearly kills graduate student Zain Willard, White House intern and nephew of presidential candidate Sen. Calvin Willard. This time the Slasher’s ghost has been spotted on the scene by none other than Pete Marino, head of investigations for the medical examiner’s office and Scarpetta’s longtime sidekick. Cornwell’s use of Robbie, Zain’s robotic dog, and Janet, Lucy’s AI companion, integrates the futuristic elements she favors more successfully than in her recent outings. But the solutions to all these mysteries will leave fans of the venerable franchise pursing their lips rather than gasping in awe.
Come for the forensics, stay for the nonhumans.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781538773963
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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