Patriot Games
First edition
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| Author | Tom Clancy |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Jack Ryan universe |
| Genre | Techno-thriller |
| Publisher | Putnam |
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Publication date
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1987 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 540 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 15316611 |
| 813/.54 19 | |
| LC Class | PS3553.L245 P38 1987 |
| Preceded by | Without Remorse |
| Followed by | Red Rabbit |
Patriot Games (1987) is a novel by Tom Clancy. It is chronologically the first book (predating the events in The Hunt for Red October) focusing on CIA analyst Jack Ryan, the main character in many of Clancy's novels. It is the indirect sequel to Without Remorse.
In London, a kidnapping is attempted on the Mall. Jack Ryan manages to disrupt the attempt by force, saving the Prince and Princess of Wales, along with their infant firstborn son, from the attackers. These attackers are members of an ultra-radical Irish terrorist group splintered from the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Ideologically, their group subscribes to Maoism, and they receive support from Libya. They are known as the "Ulster Liberation Army," or ULA. Ryan incapacitates one of the ULA members, Sean Patrick Miller, whose father was killed in an incident with the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1979, and whose girlfriend had been killed by a stray bullet from British Army forces. Miller is captured and sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering the royal driver, who was exposed to gunfire due to a fault in the vehicle's bulletproof glass. However, Miller is freed by his ULA compatriots while being transported to prison, and allies in the Mukhabarat el-Jamahiriya arrange for the party to be smuggled by sea to their training camp in the Libyan Desert. The ULA then launches an operation in America that is aimed at eliminating Ryan and his family, paying for logistical assistance from ULA affiliates in an African-American domestic terrorist organization. In the novel the organization is only referred to as "the Movement," but the fictional portrayal could have been inspired in part by the 1976-87 activities of the El Rukn gang under Jeff Fort. The attack on Ryan and his family is in part an act of revenge, but primarily it is done because the ULA seeks to reduce American support for the rival Provisional Irish Republican Army, contriving for the PIRA to receive the blame. The assassin sent to kill Ryan is intercepted before he manages to complete his task. However, Ryan's pregnant wife Cathy and daughter Sally are injured when Sean Miller causes their car to crash on a freeway. The two casualties are flown by helicopter to the University of Maryland Medical Center.
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