Patriot Games.

BOOKS IN BRIEF

Patriot Games

TOM CLANCY'S earlier best-selling action novels, The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising, dealt with Soviet-American confrontations. This time he has taken on international terrorism, specifically a left-wing splinter group of the Provisional IRA whose attempted kidnapping of members of the royal family in London is heroically foiled by a visiting Irish-American ex-Marine who teaches at Annapolis and freelances for the CIA. The terrorists, in turn, bring their struggle to the United States as they seek revenge on him and his family. The book touches a sensitive nerve in some conservative Irish-American circles, especially since the dust-jacket acknowledges the author's having conferred with "British secret anti-terrorism specialists." But the hero early in the book presents a more realistic perspective when he explains to a curious Queen why he risked his life to impede Irish terrorists: "Your prototypical Irish-American is still a basic police officer or fire-fighter. . . . In America we are the forces of order, the glue that holds society together." The book is reminiscent of the Frederick Forsyth novels in its lively description of highly technical activity such as implanting explosives or viewing reconnaissance-satellite photography. The heroes are the CIA, the FBI, Scotland Yard, the United States Navy, and the United States Marines. The mildly erotic scenes involve husband and wife, and the hero and his close associates talk very much about their children, current, expected, or desired. While the Ancient Order of Hibernians might not like the book, the Knights of Columbus and the American Legion ought to love it. Patriot Games should encourage second thoughts by those Irish-American politicians who ask for a special American intermediary role in Northern Ireland, a role that ultimately could require the presence of the Marines.