Patriot Games

Infobox Book |
name = Patriot Games
title_orig =
translator =


author = Tom Clancy
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Ryanverse
genre = Thriller novel
publisher = Putnam
release_date = 1987 (1st edition)
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 540 pp (hardback edition)
isbn = ISBN 0-399-13241-4 (hardback edition)
preceded_by = The Hunt for Red October
followed_by = The Cardinal of the Kremlin

"Patriot Games" (1987) is a novel by Tom Clancy. It is chronologically the second book (after "Without Remorse") featuring CIA analyst Jack Ryan, the main character in almost all of Clancy's novels. It is the indirect sequel to Without Remorse. The title comes from an Irish Rebel Song called The Patriot Game, an Irish ballad about the Border Campaign in Northern Ireland.

Plot summary

Ryan saves the Prince and Princess of Wales, along with their newborn (firstborn) son, from a breakaway Irish terrorist group, the Ulster Liberation Army. This group later goes after Ryan and his family, partially as an act of revenge, but primarily because they seek to undermine public (and specifically American) support for the PIRA. The ULA plans a strike against Jack Ryan and his family. The assassin sent to kill Ryan is intercepted before he manages to complete his task, but Ryan's wife, Cathy, and daughter, Sally, are hurt by the terrorists: their car crashes after the terrorists shoot it up on the freeway.

This determines Jack to take an offer the CIA had given him, to start working as an analyst in Langley, Virginia.Later, the Prince and Princess of Wales come to visit Ryan in America. This gives the ULA another opportunity to conduct another operation to weaken the support for the PIRA. They plan an operation, involving the killing of Jack Ryan and his family, kidnapping the Royal Family, and assassinating senior PIRA leaders—so the leader of the ULA could take over. The attack ultimately fails, and Jack and the Prince, with the help of Naval Academy midshipmen and local police, arrest the terrorists on a freighter they had planned to use for their escape. Jack is particularly gratified that Miller, who had incidentally killed a Maryland cop after attacking Ryan's wife and daughter, had been arrested after committing murder in a state with the death penalty: in the attack on the Royal Family, Miller had committed murder, but the U.K. had already abolished the death penalty, so he had been sentenced to life in Albany Prison. Presumably, The U.K. would not object to his trial and execution in the U.S. for a more recent crime committed there: they would not insist on his extradition to serve a life sentence in the U.K. before his execution in Maryland. (The execution is mentioned in passing in a later Ryan novel.)

The novel ends with Cathy going into labor in the Naval Academy Dispensary, delivering Jack Ryan, Jr. This child will have two very different sets of godparents: Robbie and Cecilia Jackson; and the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The novel was adapted as a feature film in 1992. See "Patriot Games". It stars Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan. The plot was significantly changed: most significantly, the Prince became "Lord Holmes", the Queen Mother's cousin; and Sean Miller is killed at the end.