Executive Orders by Tom Clancy HaperCollins $195 Tom Clancy doesn't do books by half. His plots span the globe, his characters are larger than life, and his latest work, Executive Orders, is a blockbuster in size as well as storyline.
Weighing in at just under 900 densely-printed pages, this hardback is not a light read.
Clancy, whose previous works include The Hunt For Red October and Clear And Present Danger, sets a lively pace from page one, although the opening scores no marks for subtlety.
A Japanese airliner has just plunged into the Capitol Building in Washington, killing most of the American Government, including the president.
To the rescue, once again, comes Jack Ryan, former secret service agent and one-time national security adviser.
Ryan has grudgingly agreed to stand in as vice-president until another candidate can be found. But when the plane crash kills the leader of the free world, Ryan finds himself unpacking his toothbrush at the White House.
He then has to fend off a collection of nasty schemes to strike down the United States while the administration is almost out for the count. Twists in the plot include the assassination of Saddam Hussein and a plan to threaten the world with the deadly Ebola virus.