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By Tom Clancy
G.P. Putnam's Sons (1993)
Reviewed by Robert Thompson 9/14/93
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Clancy's newest book almost seems like it should be his oldest. There are two reasons that I say this: One is because unlike his others, this one is not contemporary; Clancy's books are usually a reflection of what is going on in the world at the time that they are published. This one goes back about twenty years, to the time when the U.S. involvement in Vietnam was winding down.
The second reason is that somehow, this one does not quite have the spark that his other books do. Perhaps this is really his first novel, hidden away until his name alone was enough to make a best seller out of something that for him I would call a second rate work.
That said, let me assure you that a second rate novel by Tom Clancy is still better than most writers best works. WITHOUT REMORSE is a tale built around the somewhat shadowy, competent "Mr. Clark" that helps out Jack Ryan in previous Clancy stories.
"Mr. Clark" is an ex-Navy SEAL, who in this tale spends 2/3rds of his time doing damage to drug dealers in the Baltimore area, and about 1/3rd of his time trying to rescue some American POWS in North Vietnam. The "Mr. Clark" in this story is not quite as awesome as the character that we know from the previous stories. In this one, he occasionally makes mistakes, and is a little more "human" than the one we are familiar with.
When you finish with this book, you will know a lot more about of my favorite Clancy character. This is the story of how a "grunt" (elite yes, but still a "grunt") ended up working for the CIA. We learn about his private life, as well as his professional workings. You also meet a few people that crop up in Clancy stories that were published prior to this one, but take place later.
This book isn't as high tech as you expect with Clancy, but then, it is set in a time when the high tech wasn't as much a part of life as it has been in the past decade. There is a good bit of low-tech covert tradecraft, military, political and police procedure that is interesting and fairly accurate for the time. (I'm afraid that we were all a much more" innocent" in those days.)
If you haven't read the previous Clancy novels, I am not sure what to recommend: If you start with this one, you will get a good background on the way things used to be, and see some characters in their "formative" years that appear in other Clancy stories. However, this is not his most "edge-of-your- seat" exciting story, and you may pass up his other books which definitely deserve to be read.
If you are a tried and true Clancy fan, go ahead and read this one. You may be a little disappointed that it doesn't quite equal his other books, but it is still a good tale, and will give you a glimpse into the earlier lives of characters that you know and love.