It’s very early in Jack Ryan’s career-so early that he hasn’t yet even become an analyst for the CIA. But a series of unpleasant encounters with an IRA splinter group has brought Ryan to the attention of the CIA’s Deputy Director and his United kingdom counterpart. They provide him his first job as a freelance analyst, and he easily accepts. Debriefing a high-level Russian defector, nevertheless, he comes across an unbelievable storyline: best Soviet officials, including Yuri Andropov, are preparing to assassinate Pope John Paul II. Ryan must fight initial to verify the story, and then to stop it. But what possibility does a newbie CIA analyst possess against a cat-and-mouse game between your world’s two great superpowers?

“Among the couple of superstars, Clancy still reigns, and he’s not likely to become dethroned any time in the future.”-Washington Post