The Cardinal of the Kremlin
- Published
- 1 January 1988
- Pages
- 543
- ISBN-13
- 9780399133459
- Type
- novel
About this book
The Cardinal of the Kremlin (1988) is Clancy's follow-up to Patriot Games, running 543 pages and continuing the Cold War-era intelligence plotting -- real tradecraft, real geopolitics -- that made the early Ryan novels feel like insider briefings rather than pulp thrillers.
Key facts about The Cardinal of the Kremlin
Tom Clancy wrote The Cardinal of the Kremlin, a novel on our list. It has been out since 1 January 1988. The book has 543 pages.
We list 1 edition of this novel. Since each edition has its own ISBN, search for 9780399133459 to find the main one.
The Cardinal of the Kremlin is book 3 of 44 in the Jack Ryan series. The series has 44 published books. However, the series starts with The Hunt for Red October (1984).
Rules of Engagement is the latest book in the series with a full release date, out on 19 May 2026. Meanwhile, The Coldest War comes next, with an announced date of 24 November 2026.
Additionally, Tom Clancy writes Tom Clancy's Op-Center, Tom Clancy's Power Plays and Tom Clancy's Net Force as separate series. Those series sit on our thriller and techno-thriller shelves. Meanwhile, Commander in Chief is the latest published Tom Clancy book on file, from 1 December 2015.
About Tom Clancy
Tom Clancy was working as an independent insurance agent in Maryland, with no military or intelligence career of his own, when the Naval Institute Press — a publisher that didn't normally handle fiction — took a chance on his first novel in 1984. See every Tom Clancy book in order.
Its place in Jack Ryan
The Cardinal of the Kremlin is book 3 in the Jack Ryan series. It follows Patriot Games. It is followed by Clear and Present Danger. See the full Jack Ryan reading order.
Jack Ryan starts the series as a CIA analyst who stumbles into a Soviet submarine defection and rises, book by book, to national security adviser and eventually President of the United States — one of the most sustained "ordinary competent man in extraordinary circumstances" arcs in thriller fiction. Tom Clancy built his name on techno-thriller density: real weapons systems, real geopolitics, and enough procedural detail about submarines, fighter jets and intelligence tradecraft that the books doubled as…
Editions
- edition · unknown publisher · — · ISBN 9780399133459