Under Fire

Under Fire is the first Jack Ryan Jr. novel written after Tom Clancy’s death, and the first where Jack Jr. carries the book on his own. He is in Tehran to meet Seth Gregory, an old Georgetown friend who is supposed to be on a State Department contract — until Seth doesn’t show.

Grant Blackwood uses the set-up to separate Jack Jr. from the rest of The Campus for most of the novel. He ends up pursuing the thread across Iran, Dagestan, and Russia, with only intermittent contact home. It is the first book where Jack reads as an operator rather than as an analyst helping out.