Arctic Gambit, Larry Bond

His exemplary service and daring have brought Jerry Mitchell to the one place few military officers want to go: A desk job. The submarine commander's record has meant promotion, so it's now others who command the sleek deep-diving guardians of the United States Navy. Jerry, back at the base, coordinates their efforts and directs a squadron of submarines from his office. But in 2018's Arctic Gambit, Jerry will board a vessel once more as it hunts for a secret base where Russia seeks to develop and deploy a deadly first-strike weapon meant to hamstring U.S. response to its aggressive moves. Jerry has a personal stake, too -- one of the first victims of the developing weapon was his old friend Lenny Berg and Berg's submarine.

Unlike some military thriller writers, Larry Bond treats Jerry's career with some realism. After a certain amount of time in grade, promotion is a part of the picture. Officers who turn down the chance to advance are shuffled to the side and so it would be unrealistic to expect Jerry to still be commanding a single sub at this point of his career and life. This situation gives Bond a little bit of a problem, as he has to connive a way to get Jerry where he's supposed to be, which is under the water. It also means that the tough decisions required by an individual boat commander are left to a character with whom we have less investment than the series lead, which can make the overall book a little less interesting. Bond mostly manages to work past these slowdowns, but not perfectly and not entirely satisfyingly.

He does make up for it a bit by some good detail work and plausible scenarios in his wider theater, from the ambitious ex-KGB agent running Russia to the military commanders who may be facing a shooting war to the national leaders dealing with the reality that facing down Russian aggression could cost the U.S. civilian population immense losses from the secret weapon.

The Jerry Mitchell series has always been about the way Guys Who Do the Right Thing manage to think their way through to that Right Thing and pull it off with daring and competence. In that Arctic Gambit may be a lot like a Tom Clancy thriller, but Bond avoids Clancy's excesses and frequent silliness. And it's that toning down that gives the Mitchell books staying power that some of the Jack Ryan doorstops couldn't manage.