In Greaney's meticulously researched and exciting second contribution to the Jack Ryan franchise (after Tom Clancy Support and Defend), Ryan, now the U.S. president with two more years to go in his second term, learns that Choi Ji-hoon, North Korea's supreme leader, has embarked on a program of using his immensely valuable deposits of rare earth minerals to fund the development of a nuclear-tipped ICBM capable of reaching the continental U.S. The job of investigating and stopping this effort falls to the secret organization known as "The Campus," one of whose chief agents is the president's son, Jack Ryan Jr. The action shifts smoothly among the various plot lines, including the North Korean missile program headed by Lt. Gen. Ri Tae-jin, the rare earth mining effort under the directorship of Hwang Min Ho, and the take-down of Sharps Global Intelligence Partners, a U.S. security firm working for the North Koreans. The sympathetic portrayal of many of the characters opposed to America adds depth. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

The story of former CIA officerand current presidentJack Ryan continues with the threat of North Korea building a nuclear arsenal.After co-authoring a number of political thrillers with the late Clancy, Greaney (Tom Clancy Support and Defend, 2014, etc.) continues the author's legacy by creating a realistic portrayal of political, corporate and private espionage. Jack Ryan is in the midst of his second term as president but remains as focused on sifting through critical intelligence data as ever; in this novel, it is the lurking problem of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea going nuclear that is at the center of the action. The president's oldest son, Jack Ryan Jr., also faces the North Korean threat while working for the privately funded Campus, alongside standby Clancy characters Domingo ''Ding'' Chavez, John Clark and Dominic ''Dom'' Caruso. When a former CIA case officer is stabbed to death in Vietnam, the Campus operators start digging into the circumstances and soon find themselves squaring off with former FBI Counterintelligence officer Wayne "Duke" Sharps, now running Sharps Global Intelligence Partners. In Duke's employment are former intel operators from England and France who are helping the DPRK develop an outlaw rare earth mine which could potentially be worth trillions of dollars and provide the necessary financial base for developing a nuclear cache. The DPRK is willing to do anything to obtain nuclear weapons, even attempt an assassination of President Ryan. With all these elements in play, Greaney delivers a story reminiscent of the older Clancy novels by showing evidence of a deep understanding of spycraft, current events, and the natures of the people who work in the shadows, at the desk and on the front lines. A taut storyline with familiar characters facing new challenges. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.