Weapons Grade (stylized as Tom Clancy Weapons Grade or Tom Clancy: Weapons Grade) is a techno-thriller novel, written by Don Bentley and released on September 5, 2023. It is his fourth and final book in the Jack Ryan Jr. series, which is part of the Ryanverse featuring characters created by Tom Clancy. Weapons Grade is the second of two books by Bentley featuring Jack to be published in the same year, the other being Flash Point.
In the novel, Jack investigates a cold case after witnessing a car accident turned professional hit in Texas. It debuted at number eight on the New York Times bestseller list.[1]
Plot summary
Jack Ryan Jr. witnesses a car accident while driving at Briar Wood in Texas. When he pulls over to help, he finds himself in a gunfight between South African mercenaries led by Leon Kruger and the driver of one of the vehicles, who later dies from his wounds. After being briefly interrogated by a local detective named Bradshaw, Jack finds a note from the driver with details on a meeting with a woman named Amanda.
Jack meets Amanda, who has information for the dead driver named Jeff Wellington about his son Troy's disappearance four months ago. Reported by local police to be a drug addict when he vanished, Amanda believes Troy was sober when he stopped at a gas station she worked at the day of his disappearance. Jack accompanies Amanda as they track down her teenage daughter Bella to a restaurant, where he is abducted and drugged by Leon and his men.
Jack wakes up on the train tracks and narrowly escapes being run over. He is then captured by Bradshaw, revealed to be a corrupt cop working for Leon who had killed Amanda's patrolman boyfriend Brian. Jack later escapes from Leon's men and meets with Amanda, who tells him that Leon had kidnapped Bella for her silence. Jack checks into a motel to lure the mercenaries as he sends a duress code to his Campus associates.
Campus operative Lisanne Robertson, also on vacation in Texas with Jack, responds to her fiancé's duress code and meets with Green Beretsnipers Cary Marks and Jad Mustafa, who were on a separate Campus mission in Las Vegas. Setting out to find Jack, they meet ex-Green Beret Isaac Black and former Black Hawk helicopter pilot Kyle Hogan, co-owners of a private company specializing in aerial hog hunting trips, whom Jack had hired to track him from a helicopter when Leon's men kidnapped him at the motel.
With Isaac and Kyle providing overwatch, Lisanne and the Green Berets rescue Jack and Bella from Leon's men and a pair of MS-13 gang members hired to kill them. Jack is then tasked by Mary Pat with intercepting the UCAV as it is guided towards a high-altitude balloon guarded by Leon and his remaining henchmen a few miles away at Widow's Peak. As the Green Berets and Isaac engage in a gunfight with Leon and his men, Jack and Kyle fly towards the balloon where Jack shoots its communications antenna, allowing Behler to regain control of the UCAV, which proceeds to Iran and bombs the enrichment facility.
Bella is reunited with Amanda, while Bradshaw is arrested by his colleagues. Jack and Lisanne decide to take care of her teenage niece Emily after her mother and Lisanne's sister goes to rehab.
Domingo “Ding” Chavez: Assistant director of operations
Gavin Biery: Director of information technology
Jack Ryan Jr.: Operations officer / senior analyst
Lisanne Robertson: Former director of transportation
Master Sergeant Cary Marks
Sergeant First Class Jad Mustafa
Israeli Defense Forces Special Operations Team
Elad Morag: Team leader
Nimrod Diskin: Second-in-command
David Miller: Drone operator
Yossi Cohn: Sniper
Benny Kokia: Communications expert
United States military
General Clyde Woltman: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Colonel Bob “Lorenzo” Behler: SR-71 pilot
Charlie: SR-71 sensor operator
Shannon Kent: Air Force Special Projects Office
In Texas
Leon Kruger: Mercenary leader
Hendricks: Mercenary
Officer Bradshaw: Detective with Briar Wood PD
Brian: Patrolman with Briar Wood PD
Amanda: An eyewitness
Bella: Her daughter
Isaac Black: Former Third Special Forces Group Green Beret
Kyle Hogan: Former Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot
Development
In an interview with WECT, Bentley recalled that he wanted to write a small-scale story set in Texas after writing the previous novel Flash Point. "My son goes to Texas A&M, and I spend a lot of time driving through these small towns, and each small town has a Pizza Hut, a Dairy Queen and a brand new credit union. I’m like, ‘Why do they have that brand new credit union? What’s going on there?’ So, that's the book I sat down to write," he said.[2] Bentley based the Iran and hypersonic airliner plotlines on current events, particularly with the startup companyHermeus.[2]
Reception
Commercial
The book debuted at number eight on the Combined Print and E-Book Fiction category of the New York Times bestseller list for the week of September 24, 2023, as well as number eleven on the Hardcover Fiction category of the same list.[3] It charted at number four on the Mass Market Books category of the same list in August 2024.[4]
Critical
Thriller novel reviewer The Real Book Spy praised the novel as a "worthy addition to the Ryanverse and a fitting end to the Don Bentley era", adding that the author "has shown to be a masterful storyteller, adept at crafting intricate plots that intertwine global politics, cutting-edge technology, and heart-stopping action".[5]Kirkus Reviews gave a mixed verdict: "Lots of violent action with little payoff."[6]
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