Thank you NetGalley and Berkley G.P. Putnam’s Sons for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
The airspace over Southwest Asia is anything but safe, so when a U.S. military aircraft goes down over Turkey in bad weather, terrorism is immediately on the table. But once investigators reach the crash site, it becomes clear that something even more troubling may be going on: the plane’s guidance systems may have been tampered with from the ground. Things get even stranger when they learn that a passenger added to the manifest by the CIA never actually boarded the flight. As the mystery widens, Katie and Kyle Ryan are pulled into an uneasy partnership, working across intelligence channels and continents under their father’s presidential authority to figure out what happened and stop the threat before more lives are lost.
Ward Larson makes his debut in the Jack Ryan universe with Tom Clancy Rules of Engagement, and he feels like a natural fit for this kind of story. Coming off Cold Zero, his collaboration with Brad Thor, Larson brings real credibility to the material thanks to his background as an Air Force fighter pilot, aircraft accident investigator, and federal law enforcement officer. That experience shows up in all the right places. The crash investigation feels convincing, the military details are sharp without becoming overwhelming, and the tradecraft adds a lot of momentum to the plot. Just as importantly, Larson knows how to keep the story moving. The pacing is strong, the tension builds steadily, and the ending delivers. For longtime Ryanverse readers, this has the scale and intrigue they’ll expect, but it also works well as an entry point for newer readers.
I give Tom Clancy Rules of Engagement 5 out of 5 stars. What really made this one stand out to me is how current it feels. The story taps into real-world anxieties about instability in major trade corridors and the weaknesses that can exist in modern military systems, which gives the suspense a little extra weight. Larson also does a great job with the Ryan family dynamic. This is the first Ryanverse book with Katie and Kyle that really worked for me on that level, and they feel like full characters rather than just the next generation of familiar names. Their interactions with the older political and military leadership, and with each other, feel believable and genuinely engaging. Add in the broader military and intelligence elements, which are woven in smoothly without taking over the story, and this ended up being one of my favorite Ryanverse entries in quite a while.
That said, Larson doesn’t pull back from the violence, and the book includes serious injuries along with the deaths of some important secondary characters. Because of that, I’d probably recommend it for readers 13 and up. While you’ll get a little more out of it if you already know the Ryanverse, this still works well as a standalone, especially if you like military thrillers with strong procedural detail and high stakes. I’d also recommend it to fans of Larson’s earlier books, as well as readers of Michael Connelly, David Baldacci, and Brad Thor.
Tom Clancy Rules of Engagement will release in a few days on May 19th. You can preorder your copy today on our Bookshop.org page!
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What I’m Reading
- Current print book: The Sisters and the Sword, Sam Davey
- Current audio book: Assistant to the Villain, Hannah Nicole Maehrer
- Book I’m most looking forward to: Pretty Dead Things, Kelsey Cox
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