dontcallmeneena

On a routine intelligence gathering mission in Tehran, Jack Ryan, Jr., has lunch with his oldest friend, Seth Gregory, an engineer overseeing a transcontinental railway project. As they part, Seth gives Jack a key, along with a perplexing message. The next day Jack is summoned to an apartment where two men claim Seth has disappeared—gone to ground with funds for a vital intelligence operation. Jack’s oldest friend has turned, they insist.

A drone-based terrorist attack in Israel kills dozens on a sun-splashed beach in Caesarea as America awakens to the shattering news that Vice President Stephanie Davenport has died of an apparent heart attack. That same morning, a chance encounter on the Washington Metro results in international private investigator Robert Brixton thwarting an attempted terrorist bombing. Brixton has no reason to suspect that the three incidents have anything in common - until he’s contacted by Kendra Rendine, the Secret Service agent who headed up the vice president’s security detail.

Big-time Boston hoodlum Julius Ventura wants to find his only daughter's missing husband—at least that's how he puts it to Spenser and Hawk, even though its pretty clear that Julius isn't telling the whole truth. Or maybe not any part of the truth. Something about the case appeals to Spenser's passion for justice, and he launches an odyssey that takes the tough-but-tender duo with their penchant for literary allusions into the netherworld of organized crime.