Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Call of Duty

Rovin’s assured ninth contribution to the series created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik (after 2021’s The Black Order) opens with the explosion of a prototype hypersonic missile on the launchpad of China’s Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. Chief engineer Yang Dàyóu will pay an undeserved price for the accident, either with his freedom or his life. Yang’s son, a university student dabbling in revolutionary subversion, is imprisoned and tortured in a bid to force Yang to confess to incompetence. Meanwhile, Adm. Chase Williams, the Op-Center director, assigns Lt. Grace Lee, martial arts expert of the Black Wasp crisis team, to a solo mission to China to gather intel on the mishap. Unwilling to leave Grace without backup, Chase covertly sends sharpshooter Lance Corporal Jaz Rivette and JAG attorney Maj. Hamilton Breen to Mongolia for mission support. Chase remains stateside to run interference from national security assistant January Dow, who vows to see him replaced at Op-Center. Rovin poignantly shows the dangers facing ordinary citizens in a totalitarian regime. Those weary of the usual edge-of-Armageddon thriller plot machinations will appreciate this entry’s nuanced, human-cost scenario. Agent, Mel Berger, WME. (May)