Front flap:

The
Cardinal
of the
Kremlin
Tom Clancy

The Cardinal of the Kremlin shows Tom Clancy at the top of his form - the phenomenal new novel by the author of Red Storm Rising.
Tom Clancy has taken us on a hunt for a renegade submarine, into an astonishing scenario for World War III, and to the frontlines of terrorism.  Now he looks to the skies and one of the most remarkable technological competitions of our time - the race to develop "Star Wars."

In a rolling sea off the coast of South America, a target disappears in a puff of green light.  In the Soviet hills of Dushanbe near the Afghanistan border, an other-worldly array of pillars and domes rises into the night.  To the two greatest nations on earth, no contest is more urgent than the race to build the first Star Wars missile defense system, and no one knows that more than the two men charged with assessing the Soviets' capabilities: Colonel Mikhail Filitov of the Soviet Union, an old-line warrior distrusted by the army's new inner circle of technocrats, and CIA analyst Jack Ryan, hero of the Red October affair.
Back flap:

(Continued from front flap)

Each must use all his craft to arrive at the truth, but Filitov gets there first - and that's when all hell breaks loose.  Because Filitov, code-named Cardinal, is America's highest agent in the Kremlin, and he is about to be betrayed to the KGB.  His rescue could spell the difference between peace and war, and it is up to Jack Ryan to accomplish it - if he can - as, in a breathtaking sequence of hunter and hunted, Filitov's life, and Ryan's, and that of the world itself literally hang in the balance.

With the exceptional realism and authenticity that have become his hallmark, Clancy puts us again on the cutting edge of modern technology, and humanizes it, taking us deep inside not only the machines but the men, and constructing a story of unrelenting suspense.  In its review of Red Storm Rising, the San Francisco Chronicle said simply, "Tom Clancy is the best there is....  He is a master," and that fact has never shown more clearly than in the pure excitement of The Cardinal of the Kremlin.

Tom Clancy is the author of The Hunt for Red October, Red Storm Rising, and Patriot Games.  He lives in Maryland.

Back cover:

Extraordinary praise for the novels of Tom Clancy

THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (1984)

"Breathlessly exciting... It may be the most satisfactory novel of a sea chase since C. S. Forester perfected the form.  A tremendously gripping and enjoyable novel."

"A remarkable action novel... an iron-and-guts tale about an undersea world most readers are only vaguely aware exists."

"Clancy has a terrific talent for taking the arcana of U.S. and Soviet submarine warfare, the subtleties of sonar and techno-babble of nuclear power plants and transforming them into taut drama."

RED STORM RISING (1986)

"Red Storm Rising is a true classic.  The true measure of Tom Clancy's art is his ability to make both the high technology and the personal motivations of his characters not only real but alive and human.  This is what makes him a new star in our national constellation of writers...  Tom Clancy is the best there is.  He is a master."

"Red Storm Rising is even better than The Hunt for Red October.  I dare you to read one chapter and try to put it down."

PATRIOT GAMES (1987)

"Patriot Games is an even more compelling and spine-tingling narrative drama than Clancy's first two books because its heroes and heroines are very real people... Clancy's skills lie especially in his matchless narrative ability and the skill with which he constructs highly imaginative, believable and horrifying plots that race along at breakneck speed.  He sustains a high pitch of excitement, dread, near panic, and joy in victory, all tumbling after one another, unfolding at a very fast pace indeed.  Patriot Games is a splendid read."

"Clancy has learned a secret that evades most other writers: He tells a good story."

"Tom Clancy is a national treasure."