It really is fall. CIA analyst Jack Ryan, historian and previous Marine, is travelling in London along with his wife and young daughter. Suddenly, right before his eyes, a terrorist group launches its fatal attack.

Instinctively, he dives ahead to break it up, and is shot. It isn’t until he wakes up in the hospital that he learns whose lives he offers kept — the Duke and Duchess of Kent.

By his impulsive act, he has obtained both the gratitude of the nation as well as the enmity of its most dangerous men — men who do not take a seat on their hate.

Patriot Games is a prequel to The Hunt for Crimson October and offers all the enthusiasm and energy of Clancy’s famous initial book.