When an American plane crashes in Turkish airspace, only 15 bodies are recovered from a flight meant to be carrying 16 people. So begins Rules Of Engagement, the latest Jack Ryan adventure. With the world once again plunged into deadly peril, it’s up to our favourite former CIA analyst to save it. Only this time, it’s more of a family affair than a one-man mission.
With son Kyle leading the detective efforts and daughter Katie investigating the crash site, an ageing but ever-resourceful President Ryan is left to make the tough calls from the Oval Office. After a tense conversation with the Russian president raises more questions than it answers, Jack and his nepo babies must decipher how the plane was brought down and why the Kremlin seems so interested in its passenger list.
Written by ex-fighter pilot Ward Larsen, one of a number of authors tasked with continuing the legacy of late Jack Ryan creator Tom Clancy, Rules Of Engagement is both a rollicking good yarn and a chilling look at global conflict in the age of AI and autonomous drones. Full of twists and turns, and with more high-stake standoffs than an old-school Western, the novel would make a perfect Father’s Day gift for the person in your life that’s always been the most notoriously difficult to buy for.
