Tom Clancy’s Rules of Engagement
Jack Ryan Book 27
Ward Larsen
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
May 2026
Tom Clancy’s Rules of Engagement by Ward Larsen is his first book in the Clancy series, but hopefully not his last. Larsen includes everything that Tom Clancy wrote into his novels: international conspiracy involving rogue mercenaries, advanced drone warfare, high tech intelligence analysis, and geopolitical maneuvering with high stakes.
The plot begins with the crash of a U.S. Air Force C-32A near Bodrum, Turkey, killing all aboard, including the Secretary of Commerce. The Secretary was on an important mission; on the surface he was making an appearance at an economic conference, but the CIA was also using the flight as cover to extract an important asset from the Middle East.
Thankfully, both President Jack Ryan’s children, Katie and Kyle play a pivotal role in this story. Lt. Commander Katie Ryan and DIA cybersecurity expert Kyle Ryan, as well as John Clark and his Task Force 99 crew are a strong part of the action. Katie discovers a chilling discrepancy in the flight’s manifest. Sixteen people boarded the aircraft before its crash, but only fifteen bodies were recovered. Gunther Klaus, a Swiss moneyman for the Russians, was supposed to be on that plane, asking for asylum and has information to get to the West to expose Russian trickery.
Klye also plays a pivot role after he was handpicked to join an elite group of DIA programmers regarding a top-secret new technology. They created MAADN, a massive computing power, to have impacts on national security. It would extract large amounts of raw data into usable time-sensitive intelligence. In essence, it was the “ultimate intelligence analyst.”
The villain is Andrei Malenkov, formerly in the Russian SSD (a real unit). He has a “little squadron” of drones he plans to load with radioactive cesium chloride that would change the world and make him rich with the intended target in North Africa.
Along with the previous book, this plot seems to be the passing of the torch where President Ryan has his children, the next generation, taking on an increasingly important role in the series. Larsen has used the best parts of a Clancy novel to deliver a riveting plot. He has intelligence gathering, military realism, political maneuvering, and boots-on-the-ground action that makes for a thrilling ride.
Elise Cooper: How did you come about writing the Tom Clancy series?
Ward Larsen: I’m probably just writing the one book. The guys that were doing it, Andrews and Wilson, had some scheduling issues and it kind of became a crunch, so they asked me to step in and write this book. I think Mike Woodward, MP Woodward, is going to do the next one. After that, I’m not sure what the plan is, but right now it’s just a single book for me to write.
EC: Were you given the idea for the story or did you come up with the idea?
WL: It was pretty much my idea. I talked to Tom Colgan at Putnam, who is the editor. What they do is they like to try to mix it up a little bit. There’s a lot of subsidiary characters in the Clancy universe at this point. He suggested I do a John Clark book, which was good for me because, John Clark is one of the characters, I obviously, am most familiar with and felt comfortable with. So that was one of the things we kind of narrowed it down to. Basically, I gave a one-page outline to Tom, and then he shares that with the estate, because they must approve it. And at that point, they were like, yeah, that all works. After that, I was pretty much turned loose to write the story.
EC: This book seems relevant considering what is happening in Iran?
WL: Thriller authors must be careful, because if you get too specific, you can put yourself in a hole. Current events take over and can invalidate your story. But the way it worked out, it’s kind of about a choke point. That’s the big crux of the drama. The way it worked out, it was fine, because, choke points are a big thing right now, and people can see what it does to the world trade and the world economy.
EC: How would you describe Katie?
WL: I think she’s sort of Jack Ryan’s alter ego. She has that same analyst mindset that he has. And he sees a lot of himself in his daughter. I think Katie is kind of a chip off the old Jack Ryan Block. She has a sense of humor, especially where her brother is concerned. Katie has that kind of mindset that works well in the intelligence community. In the past she has gotten herself into some actual kinetic situations. In the last couple of books where she was on scene, there were naval battles going on. I didn’t want to put her quite that out front in this book. I don’t want to put family members at risk time after time after time because that gets a little, not believable. Although she was investigating, being more the detective in this one, doing more analysis stuff, which I think is something that Jack Ryan can relate to.
EC: What about her brother Kyle?
WL: Whereas her brother, Kyle, is very different. He’s kind of a tech savant, but he’s not as good with people and social situations. In the previous book, he was very involved out in the field. He was in peril. So, we didn’t want to do that again. Jack Ryan Jr. has been on the scene for a long time. He has his own series now. Katie and Kyle are a new edition in the last few books, but I think it’s sort of a natural progression for the Ryan family. I think it fits well. Katie and Kyle are very different and they recognize that. Their father recognizes that. But they’re both kind of finding their own way and finding a way to help the country, using the things that they do best. And for Kyle, that’s tech. He’s a tech guy. He’s very much at home with data. I think that’s his niche.
EC: What is MAADN?
WL: It is a creation of mine and it’s not a real thing, but we certainly have systems like that. We have so much data we’re acquiring from all these different sources around the world and from space. Finding out what’s useful and the amount of time where it’s still going to be useful, which is very, very important these days. MAADN is supposed to cut through the noise to discern what’s important in real time. That’s very much a current event right now. The intelligence community must try to sort out the relevance of these vast amounts of data.
EC: How would you describe the bad guy, Andrei Malenkovi?
WL: We’ve had the Russian president, Nikita Yermilov, who’s been on the scene for a while now, and has not changed, a thorn in Jack Ryan’s side. I brought in a new guy, Malenkov, formerly in SSD, which is a real unit. It’s sort of an overseeing agency now in Russia. And it’s very hush hush. It’s pretty much directly under the control of the president. And that guy in this book, Rules of Engagement, is the former head of this new agency. He has been out of it a little while, or so we think. And that’s kind of the whole crux throughout the book. Is he still working for the president of Russia, or is he gone off on his own? Is he, as a private contractor now, just working for profit? And that’s sort of the question till the very end of the book.
EC: Is that what is happening in the world today?
WL: That was very intentional. There is asymmetrical warfare where all these things are happening, and you don’t know who’s responsible because of the lack of accountability, of an attribution, of figuring out who is responsible for these things, has become a very big deal. I am paraphrasing this book quote, The Soviets had their satellite states, in Eastern Europe, and the U.S. had Western Europe. Then you knew where the battlefields were, and the borders, and the boundaries. There are asymmetrical warfare, terrorism, and cyber-attacks. I think that’s where today’s world is headed. It’s this very murky association of nation states. I mean, you see it a lot in shipping these days, and that also plays a small part in this book. You know, all these ships going around the world carrying, you’re not sure what’s in them, who’s owns them, what their intentions are. It’s become a very murky world, and that just makes the jobs of those in the intelligence community that much harder.
EC: Is there AI in this book?
WL: AI, it’s a real nation technology, and it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It’s become kind of a catchall phrase. There is AI in this book on a small scale. I have a missile system that the US uses near the end of the book that is AI oriented. It’s very specific to certain situations. And again, it’s very much a broad term right now. The actual individual uses can be very good for humanity, or they can be very bad. It can be abused easily. I think it’s a threat, and I think readers are going to continue to see it leveraged in thrillers like this.
EC: Next book?
WL: The tentative title is Red Glare, and it will probably come out in the fall of next year, in 2027. The plot has Tru Miller, a younger guy who is kind of brash, looking for his sister, who was lost and disappeared in a humanitarian effort in the Ukraine War. He is trying to track her down.
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