'Tom Clancy's Point of Contact'

Author: Mike Maden 

Publishers: Penguin Books / 2017

Pages: 515

Mike Maden grew up working in the canneries, feed mills and slaughterhouses of California's San Joaquin Valley.

But a lifelong fascination with history and warfare ultimately led to a PhD in political science focused on conflict and technology in international relations.

He served as a political consultant and campaign manager and also hosted his own local weekly radio show for a year.

He also worked as a screenwriter and producer for TV shows and films in Hollywood such as the TV series Pink, Continuum and the movie Sunny in the Dark.

Like millions of others, he first became a Tom Clancy fan after reading The Hunt for Red October and he began his published fiction career in the same techno-thriller genre, starting with Drone and sequels like Blue Warrior, Drone Command and Drone Threat.

Drone was initially the outcome of a challenge posed by friends who are authors, a techno-thriller featuring protagonist Troy Pierce, which had national success and which spawned three more sequels: Blue Warrior, Drone Command and Drone Threat.

Clancy's genius was to bring current technology into stories in a powerful and entertaining way. He also created some of the most compelling characters in the genre.

In 2017 it was announced that Grant Blackwood and Mark Greaney were exiting the Tom Clancy franchise. Blackwood was replaced by Maden.

The novel I am reviewing today is his first contribution to the Clancy series. It debuted at number three on the New York Times bestseller list, his highest. It was followed by three more sequels. In 2021 Maden was succeeded by Don Bentley as author of the Jack Ryan Jr novels.

Jack Ryan is the President of the United States and Jack Ryan Jr is his trouble-seeking son.

After a freezing mission in the North Sea, which nearly costs lives, including his own, Jack Ryan Jr is taken off black ops.

But trouble seems to follow him around. Ordered on to a routine surveillance task, he is sent to Singapore to check out a company with US interests. He soon finds that the task is anything but routine.

It is clear that somewhere there is a mole, who must be found, and quickly. 

On his part, this mole attempts to cover his tracks. Jack Jr thus finds himself dodging a team of highly-trained killers at the same time that a tropical storm rolls in.