Tom Clancy's Power Plays: Ruthless.com

Like Politika, the first installment in the Tom Clancy's Power Plays series created with Martin Greenberg, ruthless.com offers the international scope and techno-thrills of the Jack Ryan-John Clark novels--but, importantly, without Jack Ryan and John Clark. For many Clancy fans, that means that ruthless.com will be a disappointment. The hero is again Roger Gordian, and Gordian's claim to fame is his ownership of UpLink Communications; he was also the man who struggled (with his Sword security team) to avert a global nuclear war in Politika. This time Gordian's concerns are slightly more modest. As a champion of encryption technology, Gordian has fought the shifting political winds that have tried to deregulate his industry. But now, he faces attacks from within: UpLink is the subject of a hostile takeover bid that threatens to put the highly sensitive codes that secure military communications into the hands of international terrorists. While it is more violent than the usual Jack Ryan fare, and Gordian and others in the cast are left underdeveloped in the complex shifts and turns of the plot, ruthless.com has many moments that recall the best of Clancy (Gordian, for example, maintains a highly ethical streak despite his corporate panache). --Patrick O'Kelley

Tom Clancy was the author of eighteen #1 New York Times-bestselling novels. His first effort, The Hunt for Red October, sold briskly as a result of rave reviews, then catapulted onto the bestseller list after President Ronald Reagan pronounced it the perfect yarn.Clancy was the undisputed master at blending exceptional realism and authenticity, intricate plotting, and razor-sharp suspense. He died in October 2013.Martin H. Greenberg was honored in 1995 by the Mystery Writers of America with the Ellery Queen Award for lifetime achievement in mystery editing. He is also the recipient of two Anthony awards. Mystery Scene magazine called him "the best mystery anthologist since Ellery Queen." He has compiled more than 1,000 anthologies ands the president of TEKNO books.He lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Jerome Preisler is the New York Times bestselling author of over thirty books of fiction and nonfiction, including his most recent military histories, CODE NAME CAESAR: The Secret Hunt for U-Boat 864 during World War Two and FIRST TO JUMP: How the Band of Brothers Was Aided by the Brave Paratroopers of Pathfinders Company. He lives in New York City.