Full Force and Effect, by Mark Greaney - A Tom Clancy Syndicate Novel

I have become a fan of Mark Greaney and enjoy reading the books that he has written under the Tom Clancy syndicate. Most of his books up to this point have been middle range books that have had good intrigue and lots of action. This is what I would consider a more daunting longer read epic in the style that Clancy made famous.

The story is well conceived and well written. It has that overarching epic feel of a huge political situation that has multiple fronts and threats that have to be analyzed an dealt with. The main gist of the story is that North Korea has a new leader, the son of the previous dictator. This son wants to accomplish what his father started by getting ICBM missiles with nuclear warheads that can reach the west coast of the United States and thus push the U.S. to listen up to North Korea and consider them a world power.

To do this they need cash. To get cash they have to find a new way to produce income. Lucky for them the worlds largest deposit of rare earth minerals is found in their own back yard. This mining operation could produce 12 trillion dollars of income for the regime. That is enough money to buy everything they need to go nuclear.

Thus the Campus is on the trail of what is going on as well as the CIA and DNI Mary Foley. All the characters are coming together to try and determine the best way to stop North Korea from getting this funding online. President Ryan wants this stopped. Thus he is willing to step out on a limb and handle sanctions against North Korea even against the wishes of other nations.

This epic tale is current to todays political climate. It is ripped right from our front pages. Maybe the only stretch is the rare earth mining issue, but that just adds to the intrigue of the book.

Greaney does a masterful job of weaving this story together and providing plenty of little sub-plots to help you learn more about the characters involved and the dynamics of how espionage works in todays corporate and political world.

You will enjoy every once of the book. So, why did I only give it four stars you ask? Well, because I think that as a larger epic piece under the Clancy name it still didn't have the gripping power of the Clancy style for this longer work. It's close and with more time of development Greaney will get there, just not completely this time. BUT, that doesn't detract from a great story.

Enjoy!