Without Remorse [Mass Market Paperback]

Tom Clancy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 2004

In a harrowing tour de force, Tom Clancy shows how an ordinary man named John Kelly crossed the lines of justice and morality--to become the CIA legend Mr. Clark.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This harrowing #1 bestseller is an unforgettable journey into the heart of darkness. Without mercy. Without guilt. Without remorse.

From Publishers Weekly

Avid readers of Clancy's bestselling techno-thrillers ( The Hunt for Red October et al.) know agent John Kelly, code-named Mr. Clark, as Jack Ryan's "dark side." Here, in 1970, Vietnam vet Kelly gets involved in a secret operation to rescue 20 American pilots from a North Vietnamese prison camp. Betrayed by someone in Washington, the mission ends in apparent failure. Clancy balances the military movements with a dark narrative of Kelly's tragic personal life. While mourning the death of his pregnant wife in a traffic accident, Kelly picks up a young hitchhiker named Pam, a prostitute and drug "mule" fleeing her cruel masters. The pair fall in love and set out to bring down the drug lords, but an error on Kelly's part leads to Pam's horrible demise at the hands of the vengeful criminals. After his own recovery from a shotgun blast, Kelly begins methodically to murder his way through the drug ring. Clancy attempts to rationalize this amoral crusade with passages of introspection by characters who are either noble warriors or human scum, but the technique doesn't wash. Although full of failings of style and moral judgment, this overlong, often melodramatic novel seems destined to follow its predecessors to the top of the bestseller lists. BOMC selection.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 768 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (May 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425143325
• ISBN-13: 978-0425143322
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (360 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( C ) > Clancy, Tom
  • #29 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue
  • #93 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Suspense

More About the Author

Tom Clancy is America's, and the world's, favorite international thriller author. Starting with THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, all thirteen of his previous books have hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. His books, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, PATRIOT GAMES, CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER and THE SUM OF ALL FEARS have been made into major motion pictures. He lives in Maryland where he is a co-owner of the Baltimore Orioles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

239 of 242 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revenge without remorse...., September 26, 2003

By 

Alex Diaz-Granados "fardreaming writer" (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Without Remorse (Mass Market Paperback)

Tom Clancy has created several fictional heroes that are at the heart of his many novels. One, of course, is John Patrick Ryan, who has served his country as a Marine, CIA officer, National Security Adviser, and President of the United States. With the exception of Red Storm Rising (a book that is not set in Clancy's "Ryan-verse"), Jack Ryan appears or is talked about in every novel from The Hunt for Red October to The Teeth of the Tiger.

The other major character Clancy readers have come to admire is John Clark, a man who works for the other side of the Agency as a paramilitary officer. Whether he is in Colombia using a laser target designator to help bomb a Medellin Cartel member's mansion or leading a multinational antiterrorist team called Rainbow, Clark is the type of man our government needs to use while denying his existence.

But John Clark has a past wrapped in mystery, one his family doesn't know much about and is a closely guarded secret. For John Clark was once ex-SEAL John T. Kelly, Vietnam veteran, avid diver and sailor.

But when Kelly's girlfriend is brutally murdered by a Baltimore drug lord's henchmen, the otherwise peacable and war-weary Kelly vows revenge. Dispensing his own version of street justice relentlessly and without remorse, Kelly must not only avoid being killed by the drug dealers, but he also has to evade the dogged detective work of Baltimore cop Emmett Ryan, a World War II vet and father of the future President.

Adding to his already complicated life, Admiral James Greer recruits Kelly to participate in a daring rescue mission into North Vietnam. But when a radicalized American antiwar activist gets wind of this secret military operation, events will drive John Terence Kelly down a path that he never intended to take.

Although published 11 years after The Hunt for Red October, this taut and thrilling novel is the first chapter of the long-running Jack Ryan saga. If you are just entering the Ryan-verse, read this entertaining book first.

76 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tom Clancy at his best!!!, June 15, 2002

By 

K. Wyatt "ssintrepid" (Cape Girardeau, MO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Without Remorse (Hardcover)

"Without Remorse" is the page turner to beat all page turners. I brought this book to Korea with me the first time I went there, knowing that I'd have some spare time at the end of a six week tour there. I was expecting to maybe read half of the book in that time and finish it when I came home. No way! Once I started this book, it was done in less that 48 hours. You simply cannot put this one down for something as trivial as sleeping or eating. Tom Clancy goes into great detail giving the whole backstory on John Kelly/Clark. Once you've read this book, you'll be thinking back on all that came before and after it saying to yourself, "this is how and why John Clark does what he does." It is extremely heart wrenching to read what happens to Pam and how John Clark deals with it. You feel as if you want to be there with him, ready to take out some vigilante justice. I had originally skipped this one and read his next novel, what a mistake that was. Even though I knew that John Clark was in the next novel, I kept saying a prayer hoping he doesn't get killed in this one. That is how good a writer Tom Clancy is. I don't know if there's such a thing as a writer's hall of fame, if not, there should be one with Tom Clancy right there at the top. Thank you very much to Tom Clancy for an absolutely great read!

67 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great book, bad Kindle conversion, March 12, 2010

By 

Christopher King - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Without Remorse (Jack Ryan) (Kindle Edition)

This is by far my favorite Clancy book, and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the Jack Ryan series, or anyone with an interest in military fiction. It is definitely a 4-5 star book.

The reason that I give it 3 stars is the Kindle conversion. The formatting is just not professional enough for a Kindle book priced at $6-$7. There are a LOT of misspelled words, and many of them aren't even properly-spelled but wrong words -- they are just gibberish. Also, Clancy makes heavy use of italicized text, which the Kindle version tends to munge up. If it was one or two, I could live with it, but it's at least one every few pages, and some have so many that it distracts from the story.

Summary: great story, fantastic writing, just a horrible editing job in the Kindle version.