Author Stories Podcast Episode 897 | Mike Maden Returns With Tom Clancy’s Firing Point


Today our guest Mike Maden returns to the show to talk about the new Tom Clancy Firing Point (Jack Ryan Universe Book 29).

Jack Ryan, Jr. is out to avenge the murder of an old friend, but the vein of evil he’s tapped into may run too deep for him to handle in the latest electric entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

While on vacation in Barcelona, Jack Ryan, Jr. is surprised to run into an old friend at a small café. A first, Renee Moore seems surprised to see Jack, but then she just seems irritated and distracted. After making plans to meet later, Jack leaves, only to miss the opportunity to ever speak to Renee again, as the café is destroyed minutes later by a suicide bomber. A desperate Jack plunges back into the ruins to save his friend, but it’s too late. As she dies in his arms, she utters one word, “Sammler.”

When the police show up they are initially suspicious of Jack until they are called off by a member of the Spanish Intelligence Service. This mysterious sequence of events sends the young Campus operative on an unrelenting search to find out the reason behind Renee’s death. Along the way, he discovers that his old friend had secrets of her own—and some of them may have gotten her killed.

Jack has never backed down from a challenge, but some prey may be too big for one man.

Mike Maden grew up working in the canneries, feed mills and slaughterhouses of California’s San Joaquin Valley. A lifelong fascination with history and warfare ultimately lead to a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Davis with a focus on conflict and technology in international relations. Like millions of others, he first became a Tom Clancy fan after reading The Hunt for Red October, and began his published fiction career in the same techno-thriller genre, starting with Drone and the sequels, Blue Warrior, Drone Command and Drone Threat. After spending over a decade in Dallas, Maden now lives in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee.

Thirty years ago, Tom Clancy was a Maryland insurance broker with a passion for naval history. Years before, he had been an English major at Baltimore’s Loyola College and had always dreamed of writing a novel. His first effort, The Hunt for Red October, sold briskly as a result of rave reviews, then catapulted onto the New York Times bestseller list after President Reagan pronounced it “the perfect yarn.” From that day forward, Clancy established himself as an undisputed master at blending exceptional realism and authenticity, intricate plotting, and razor-sharp suspense. He passed away in October 2013.

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