The Cardinal of the Kremlin by Tom Clancy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is one of Clancy’s lesser known works in the Ryan-verse that never made it into a movie, not like Hunt for Red October, Clear and Present Danger, Sum of All Fears, or Patriot Games. This work was made when SDI was still on the books and in the minds of people able to talk about it openly and as a propaganda tool. Then the projects went back to the black, top secret mode with innocuous Pentagon code names and the budgets in hidden in other budgets.
It introduces Clark (in terms of publication, not chronology), keeps Ramius, Jones, Mancuso, and also introduces some of the Russians in Bear and the Dragon.
amicusveritae 