Some critics refer to the "Jack Ryan series" of novels because Jack Ryan is a continuing character in Clancy's books. It seems clear that Clancy likes the Ryan character, who is both a man of action and a man of quiet deliberation. In suspense, Clear and Present Danger may outdo its predecessors; the consequences for mistakes in the story are even more horrible than the physician-run Soviet torture chambers in The Cardinal of the Kremlin (1988). Enhancing the suspense in each novel is the knowledge that the underlying events are essentially true. People are raped, mutilated, and murdered by the drug cartel every day.