A little more than 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.

The Ops-Center team faces untold chaos on a mission in Africa in the ninth novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series created by Tom Clancy and former Department of State official Steve Pieczenik.

On the surface it seems a simple case: a group of African militiamen have kidnapped a priest and ordered all Catholic missionaries to leave the nation of Botswana. But the Vatican thinks otherwise. At its urging, Op-Center investigates-and finds out that the real purpose of the crime is a plan by outside forces to destabilize the government and seize the nation's diamond mines. With its military team, Striker, out of commission, Op-Center must reinvent itself-and head straight into the crossfire of an African war.