Patriot Games is chronologically Tom Clancy’s second book in the Jack Ryan Serie.

Tom Clancy is known for his books about the American military, authorities and espionage.

His works are always very founded, informative and the reader receives a captivating main story with a lot of background information and side plots.

In the main story, the reader gets an insight into how Jack Ryans career with the federal agencies began. In the beginning, he’s not very fond of a working relationship with the agencies, which gets him into conflict with himself and his job as a teacher. Due to a tragic incident, Jack is confronted by a malicious opponent, a well-known terrorist with a mission. Jack Ryan gets into his path and therefore is a possible threat.

To bring this terrorist group down, Jack works together with the agencies after all. He gets an insight into how the FBI and CIA work, together with the authorities in England. Many leads are dead ends, and others lead to more leads. A difficult task for everyone, a question of trust and honour.

A terrorist group of Irish origin, with members worldwide and endless resources, are not stopping to finish their goal to free their country from suppression and become a revolutionary.

While reading you get a realistic view of how such an organisation work, how they plan an attack meticulously. No wonder that they can keep hidden for such a long time and not get caught. It gets clear why it is such an impossible task to keep track of them and bring them to justice.

In the beginning, I had difficulties getting into the story, due to the abundance of characters. I found the background information interesting, well placed and helpful to understand the storyline. But also it kept you from moving forward, getting into the flow, and therefore in my opinion, not a quick easy read.

I would recommend this novel because of the well-developed story close to reality, all the information you get while reading is an addition.