Clear and Presnt Danger was written in 1989 by Tom Clancy and is his fifth book. It is the fourth book in the Jack Ryan series following on from 'Hunt for Red October', 'Patriot Games' and the 'Cardinal of the Kremlin'. This book is takes a break from the Cold War which by 1989 was now at an end and shifts Ryan's focus to the Columbian Cartels and America's war on drugs. The title refers to a speech made by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr who argued about the rights of the individual vs those of the Governement in times of war. His belief was that Government must do whatever is necessary to protect itself in those times it faces adversity. After the US Coast ...  Read the complete review

I found with this book that the author is deep into detail and dedicated to giving you all the background information. This causes the stories to start off slowly and to be honest it was hard to staying going anfd not lose interest in the book.. As you continue on however, references become less and less explained and the story picks up faster. Even when he explains some of the military terms and procedures, if you're not familiar with (as I am not) , it can get pretty challenging. I was not too impressed with the beginning of the book but the end of the book has much suspense and many interesting twists. ...  Read the complete review

I guess I'm not a great fan of Clancy. I loved Red Storm Rising though,because of it's abundance of military knowledge, action, suspense and plot. I mean that is a book that has a huge amount of content and justifies being 1000 pages long. But all of his other books, including CAPD are 250 page novels expanded with boring tedious detail. Someone should go to his books cut out all the needless blurb and release it. I would buy it as it's clear there is a good plot at work, but following it is like reading through treacle. ...  Read the complete review

I read this book without any expectations at all. It is not a genre I would normally read, but there I was at the train station, with nothing to read on the train, and I had alredy read everything by my favourite, second favourite, and even slightly less than favourite authors. So I picked this up and began to read. It must be said the basic plot is actually ok, although nothing particularly out of the ordinary. But the masses of technical jargon you are expected to wade through is just completely unreasonable. I felt as though I had just read a catologue for guns, helicopters and other sundry military equipment. The impression the author gives is that he has done a ...  Read the complete review

If you have the patience to skim through a bit of technical jargon, this is a great action novel! The facts behind this story are these: in the late '80's Colombian druglord Pablo Escobar blew up a plane with 3 American nationals aboard. He wasn't interested in them but in a Columbian who had crossed him! George Bush responded by creating a secret unit of Colombian commandos dedicated to taking out the druglords. Despite many casualties Escobar was finally cornered on the roof of his Bogata mansion and riddled with assault-rifle bullets. The squad went on to mop up the Medellin and Cali drug cartels - but of course, new narco-trafficers simply ...  Read the complete review