Tom Clancy: Commander in Chief

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.)