Dead or Alive

The world's most wanted terrorist — known only as the Emir — has evaded every government, intelligence agency, and special operations unit for years. In Dead or Alive, Jack Ryan Jr. and the off-the-books operatives of The Campus are handed a thread that might finally lead somewhere. What unfolds is less a race against the clock than a methodical, high-stakes hunt — one where the wrong move doesn't just end careers but ends lives, and where the enemy's patience is as dangerous as any weapon.

Clancy and co-author Grant Blackwood pack the novel with the operational texture that defines this universe at its best: the procedural weight of intelligence work, the friction between official channels and covert action, and characters who feel forged rather than invented. The narrative toggles confidently between multiple theaters — field operatives, analysts, political decision-makers — without losing momentum. Readers who want their thrillers grounded in real-world tradecraft, with a cast whose history spans decades of novels, will find this one genuinely earns its length.