“Clear and Present Danger” is a densely built political thriller about a covert war on a Colombian drug cartel. Jack Ryan, shut out by his own CIA colleagues, has to uncover it, and the book joins military detail to intrigue inside government. Some readers admire that precision; others find the long build-up padded and only the final fifth gripping. Close to seven hundred pages for those who like procedure.

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About the book

Clear and Present Danger is a political thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and published on August 17, 1989. A sequel to The Cardinal of the Kremlin (1988), character Jack Ryan becomes acting deputy director of Intelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and discovers that he is being kept in the dark by his colleagues who are conducting a covert war against a drug cartel based in Colombia. It debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list. A film adaptation, featuring Harrison Ford reprising his role as Ryan, was released on August 3, 1994.

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Where the score comes from

The sources average 7.8 across 260 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 64% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Thriller average of 7.6. That is how 7.7 comes out.