And when Stukely is killed in a riding accident, Logan is given a mysterious package by the jockey's valet. He's also a close friend of jockey Martin Stukely. In this one, Gerald Logan is a glass blower - not bottles, mind you, but stuff ranging from tourist gewgaws to works of art. It has all the familiar Francis elements: the strong leading character telling the tale in the first person the man who perseveres despite the terrible physical danger, simply because it's the right thing to do the odd vocation. 41 for Dick Francis, that English master of thrills and chills in the world of British horse racing. Indeed ones who are far better than we - or Clancy himself - will ever be. Look at pornography, whether it's of the male variety (every woman is insatiable) or the female (men can be transformed by the love of a good woman).Ĭlancy's fantasy is that the good guys always win, and win decisively.Īnd he builds strongly moral, attractive characters, ones we would like to emulate. It's because Clancy is a master of detail - especially those having to do with military action and weapons. So what makes Clancy the wealthy writer he is? Not the writing itself, which is workmanlike. It has the usual Clancy elements - the unsung intelligence agent burrowing away, the well-drawn battle scenes, the conservative diatribes, Ryan's whining about how he just doesn't like this politics stuff. The bear in the title refers to Russia, the dragon China and the whole to a threatened shooting conflict between the two.