Marc Cameron. Tom Clancy: Oath of Office. New York: Putnam, 2018. Print.
Oath of Office is the latest of the continuing saga begun by Tom Clancy of still-sitting President Jack Ryan. Clancy authored thirteen of these novels and co-authored five. This is the tenth posthumous novel continuing the series by other writers, the second authored by Cameron: Twenty-eight and counting! Pretty soon the numbers will be taking readers into the Hardy Boys or Tarzan strata.
Oath of Office reads well with what has become typical Clancy plotting. This novel, unlike some of the recent stories, actually features Jack Ryan, Sr., as much as spy Jack Ryan, Jr.
President Ryan has his hands full in this one. As is often the case, it seems the author had some foresight about what certain governments would be doing. So Russia is planning some naval exercises to weaken the Ukrainian Navy. (Sound familiar?)
Russians also appear to be taking both the side of the governing theocracy and the side of young rebels in Iran and making it appear that America is bombing the country to add to the unrest. They also may or may not be behind an attempted coup in Cameroon in which dissident army officers have surrounded the American embassy. Oh, and a radical U. S. Senator (reminiscent of certain congresswomen?) is vowing to impeach President Ryan.
The Cameroon crisis and the impeachment threat are based on doctored YouTube videos of the President saying things about Cameroon and bragging how he is hoarding flu vaccine for his staff and his friends.
Still, the story does begin with Jack, Jr., and a few of his co-workers tracking a French arms dealer in Portugal after a clever theft of a couple of Russian nuclear missiles. The arms dealer is assassinated right in front of the eyes of his bodyguards who are unable to do anything about it—also very clever.
International incidents, Russian “wet workers,” Iranian prison interrogators, Russian Navy operations, Afghan opium smugglers, criminal assassins…it is a wild ride. If nothing else, Oath of Office does make the reader appreciate the great burdens, challenges, and thanklessness that come with being President regardless of who is in office—even someone as upbeat and patriotic as Jack Ryan, Sr.