Clear and Present Danger (Jack Ryan #5) by Tom Clancy

From Goodreads:

Colombian drug lords, bored with Uncle Sam’s hectoring, assassinate the head of the FBI. The message is clear: Bug off!
At what point do these druggies threaten national security? When can a nation act against its enemies? These are questions Jack Ryan must answer because someone has quietly stepped over the line.
Does anyone know who the real enemy is? How much action is too much? Which lines have been crossed? Ryan and his “dark side”, a shadowy field officer known only as Mr. Clark, are charged with finding out. They expect danger from without… but the danger from within may be the greatest of all.

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Yet again this author suffers from putting way too much material into one story. It’s at least 30% too long and needed slimmed down considerably.

The first half was pretty good and I really enjoyed the switch of scenery from bad guy Russian spies to bad guy Columbian drug cartels. I also really enjoyed the introduction of some new characters, such as Chavez and Cortez and the reintroduction of characters such as Clarke and Dan Murray.

The second half lost focus though. There was too much made of the disappearance of the special ops teams and trying to find out where they went and too much detail in the initial deployment and redeployment. I really did enjoy the hunt element of the second half though, the battles with the cartel soldiers and eventual evacuation of the special ops teams.

Overall a good story. The military and weapons details are lost on me but I understand that appeals to a lot of Clancy’s readers. A nice change of scenery and definitely worth a read.

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