Out of Clear and Present Danger

Or

The Hunt for Dead October

Or

The Sum of All Cardiovascular Disease

Tom Clancy, creator of the techno-thriller genre, has died at the age of 66. His debut novel, The Hunt for Red October, layered technical details, late Cold War geopolitics, the tension of submarine combat, and created an intelligent action hero, in one of the best espionage thrillers ever written. He spent the rest of his career trying to do it again, with varying levels of success. The former insurance salesman sold millions of books, created successful video games, and became a multimillionaire who bought part of the Baltimore Orioles and his own tank. The level of detail in his novels disturbed many in the military establishment who demanded to know how he got such high clearance. He insisted his knowledge came from technical manuals, interviews with submarine experts, books on the military, and his own imagination, which occasionally strayed into classified areas.