Locked On

Locked On is the third Mark Greaney novel co-written with Tom Clancy in the long Jack Ryan continuation sequence, with the Campus operating against a Pakistani-nuclear plot that threatens both the elected Jack Ryan administration and the regional stability the new ISI head is meant to be protecting. Greaney by this point in his run is doing most of the actual plotting and prose while Clancy provides the brand and the franchise approval.

Greaney's strength in Locked On is the propulsion of the chapters and the careful integration of the Campus operatives with the established Ryanverse cast. Jack Ryan Jr., John Clark, and Dom Caruso all get appropriate page time. Fans of Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp novels or Brad Thor's Scot Harvath series will recognize the post-9/11 political-action register operating at its commercial peak.

The book is long and the procedural details are dense in the way the Clancy form requires. The closing chapters earn the wait.

Four stars. A reliable late-Clancy entry in Greaney's collaborative period. The Locked On Mark Greaney novel works as part of the Ryanverse continuation. Readers new to the franchise should start with The Hunt for Red October; readers new to Greaney's solo work should start with The Gray Man, which is the series that made his name.