 First edition cover | |
| Author | Don Bentley |
|---|---|
| Audio read by | Scott Brick |
| Language | English |
| Series | Jack Ryan Jr. |
Release number | 10 |
| Genre | |
| Publisher | G.P. Putnam's Sons |
Publication date | May 23, 2023 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover), Audio, eBook |
| Pages | 432 |
| ISBN | 9780593422786 |
| Preceded by | Zero Hour |
| Followed by | Weapons Grade |
Flash Point (stylized asTom Clancy Flash Point orTom Clancy: Flash Point) is atechno-thriller novel, written byDon Bentley and released on May 23, 2023. It is his third book in theJack Ryan Jr. series, which is part of theRyanverse featuring characters created byTom Clancy.Flash Point is the first of two books by Bentley featuring Ryan to be published in the same year, the other beingWeapons Grade.
In the novel, Jack deals with an attack on The Campus from Chinese mercenaries. It debuted at number eight onthe New York Times bestseller list.[1]
Jack Ryan, Jr. leads a surveillance operation inRegensburg, Germany with Campus operative Lisanne Robertson and asset Isabel Yang, asGreen Beretsnipers Cary Marks and Jad Mustafa provide overwatch. They witness arendition of Chinese expatriate Wang Lei byMSS operatives, whom Jack and the Green Berets unsuccessfully try to apprehend.
Jack finds out that Lei’s brother, scientist Zhang Wei, is also in Regensburg, and asks Campus operations directorJohn Clark for authorization to initiate contact. Clark tasks him to go toManila, Philippines to recover a Chineseundersea glider, but Jack goes ahead with meeting Wei, who is killed by a Chinese sniper. Leaving Lisanne and Yang and fearful about being followed by the MSS, the three proceed toSalzburg, Austria and take separate flights to Manila, where they meet Clark, Campus assistant operations director Domingo “Ding” Chavez, and operative Dominic “Dom” Caruso.
Clark and Ding meet with Filipino banker Mario Reyes in a warehouse at theNavotas fish port to retrieve the glider, as Dom, Jack, and the Green Berets provide overwatch. They are attacked by Chinese mercenaries also after the glider, ending in an explosion that injures Ding and Dom as they kidnap Clark. The leader of the mercenaries, Fen Li, had been hunting for Jack since his intervention at the MSS’s attempted assassination of scientist Dr. Rebecka Schweigart.[a] Jack informsdirector of national intelligence Mary Pat Foley, who sends a CIA extraction team for Ding and Dom and tells Jack’s father, U.S. PresidentJack Ryan. He orders The Campus to be integrated into the U.S. intelligence community as they work to rescue Clark, who had been tortured byAbu Sayyaf pirates working with Fen.
Meanwhile, aP-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft crashes into theSouth China Sea after colliding with a ChineseJ-16 fighter plane. President Ryan instructs theVirginia-class attack submarineUSSDelaware to rescue its crew, evading a ChineseType 054A frigate after a tense standoff. As other Chinese frigates gather nearTaiwan after having failed to capture the P-8’s crew, Mary Pat discovers the maneuver as a diversion; Fen and her mercenaries had also staked a claim on a deposit ofpolymetallic nodules along theParacel Islands. She relays this information to President Ryan, who informs Chinese President Chen; the latter agrees to turn back the Chinese frigates and assist in rescuing Clark.
After unsuccessfully using the glider to locate Clark, Jack and the Green Berets pinpoint his location to a Vietnamese trawler at South China Sea. With Mario piloting the seaplane, Jack dispatches the Abu Sayyaf pirates and rescues Clark from being hanged by Fen, whom he shoots dead. They escape the trawler as it is engulfed by flames. Ding and Dom later recover. Jack proposes to Lisanne, who accepts.
The book debuted at number eight on the Combined Print and E-Book Fiction category ofthe New York Times bestseller list for the week of June 11, 2023, as well as number nine on the Hardcover Fiction category of the same list.[2] It charted at number two on the Mass Market Books category of the same list in April 2024.[3]
Thriller novel reviewer The Real Book Spy praised the book: "Fast-paced with a smart plot that feels all too plausible in today’s world, Don Bentley serves up his best Jack Ryan novel to date."[4]Kirkus Reviews reviewed the novel: "A well-turned, if predictable, installment in the popular series."[5]
