Review: Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy

The good

• An interesting look at the drug war and the politics, laws, and covert operations involved.

• Lots of good action, combat, and spec ops.

• A few interesting characters. Jack Ryan is actually mostly a side character until the very end; the real stars in this one are Ding Chavez, John Clark, and Felix Cortez.

• Fun opening with a US coast guard ship catching some abhorrent criminals and putting them on “trial,” the old school way.

The not so good

• I wish Cortez got to do more. He’s a super interesting character, but the plot doesn’t let him do nearly as much interesting stuff as he could’ve.

• Jack Ryan felt superfluous to this book. I mean, it’s the Jack Ryan series, but really, he didn’t need to be in this one. Less Ryan and more Chavez / Clark / Cortez would’ve made this book better.

• A little too much “rah rah” patriotism stuff, though that’s pretty standard of Tom Clancy books.

Rating: 4 stars