Teeth of the Tiger is a fiction book, although at times it seems like something that could or will happen. The main characters, Dominic and Brian Caruso, are fraternal twins. They look alike, but all resemblance ends there. They are completely different people with completely different ways of looking at life. Clancy explains this not through a literal statement, but through small subtleties that when put together gives you the sense of a difference between the two.



At first, the subtleties are nothing more than different pistols and different nicknames. Then they are escalated to the one big difference, qualms about killing. Brian was a former marine who was used to facing his enemies in a fair firefight. He thought that this whole backstabbing business was dishonorable. Dominic had no such reservations about it.



The range of emotions you will feel while reading this book is unlike anything you have experienced. The differences between the two characters keep the book extremely exciting. Then you get a completely different feeling when that one main difference between the two becomes a similarity. This new feeling is a mix a satisfaction and readiness. It's obvious this is coming, and you feel ready to go assassinate some terrorists with the Caruso brothers.



This book has a way of invoking a fierce sense of pride in your country. The only way to explain is to say that it's like every terrorist attack is like a particularly bad insult towards you and whenever you assassinate one of the terrorists, you get that satisfactory sense of revenge. The reason this book elicits such a strong reaction is because of the terrorist attacks we have actually had. After reading some of the parts of this book, I put down the book with anger coursing through my blood and an image of the rubble of the Twin Towers in my head.



Teeth of the Tiger is a fiction book, although at times it seems like something that could or will happen. The main characters, Dominic and Brian Caruso, are fraternal twins. They look alike, but all resemblance ends there. They are completely different people with completely different ways of looking at life. Clancy explains this not through a literal statement, but through small subtleties that when put together gives you the sense of a difference between the two.



At first, the subtleties are nothing more than different pistols and different nicknames. Then they are escalated to the one big difference, qualms about killing. Brian was a former marine who was used to facing his enemies in a fair firefight. He thought that this whole backstabbing business was dishonorable. Dominic had no such reservations about it.



The range of emotions you will feel while reading this book is unlike anything you have experienced. The differences between the two characters keep the book extremely exciting. Then you get a completely different feeling when that one main difference between the two becomes a similarity. This new feeling is a mix a satisfaction and readiness. It's obvious this is coming, and you feel ready to go assassinate some terrorists with the Caruso brothers.



This book has a way of invoking a fierce sense of pride in your country. The only way to explain is to say that it's like every terrorist attack is like a particularly bad insult towards you and whenever you assassinate one of the terrorists, you get that satisfactory sense of revenge. The reason this book elicits such a strong reaction is because of the terrorist attacks we have actually had. After reading some of the parts of this book, I put down the book with anger coursing through my blood and an image of the rubble of the Twin Towers in my head.

This book is a perfect example of someone sleepwalking through the writing process. I wish I could give it a zero or minus rating. I can only echo the complaints in previous reviews: the dialogue is juvenile and completely unrealistic, to many holes in the plot to count, and the tradecraft practices of this trio of assassins, unbelievable. BTW, the twins had Presidential pardons in hand before going out as a hit squad, did I miss it, but where was Jack, Jr.'s? Maybe I did miss it in the pages I found myself skimming and turning without reading. This series has definitely jumped the shark. I actually find it hard to believe that Clancy wrote this. Embarrasing. No more Clancy books for you!

I've been a fan of Clancy's books for a long time but admit to not reading most of his recent stuff. I was given a copy of Teeth of the Tiger by a friend and I must say I am highly disappointed by this book. The characters are poorly developed at best. The twins and Jack Jr are unimpressive as characters. The story didn't really seem to develop either. There was so much of this book that just felt like filler that Clancy threw in because he didn't have anything better to put in. The story also felt very anti-climatic and rather predictable. It seems rather obvious as soon as the groups of terrorists split up that at least one team was going to have to tangle with the twins. The Columbians faded out from the story without much happening. Mohammad was possibly the most generic villain in any of his books. There just feels like there could have been so much better. With Clark running Rainbow and Jack Sr retired I think it may be time to move away from the Ryanverse. If the twins and Jack Jr are the future I'm not sure I want to be along for the ride.

Many reviewers have lambasted Clancy for the shallow portrayal of the protagonists, and justifiably so. But what I have not seen is a parallel cri de coeur regarding the book's antagonists. So terrorists shoot up four malls in various mid-sized, red-state cities. Why? Clancy's gives them a rationale of shattering Americans' illusion of security. To what purpose? Post-9/11 America was very sharp for about two years regarding security issues. An operation like that described in the book would have a similar effect, making further operations incredibly difficult. If they had something bigger planned, what is it?

Who is Mohammed? I mean, aside from the most generic bad guy ever portrayed in a Clancy novel. We have no idea why he's gadding about Europe from city to city meeting with people. If it was merely information, his trusted encryption system would have been a much better way to convey this. If it was planning and recon for operations, why is he meeting people in restaurants to have meaningless conversations that could have taken place by email?

What happened to the Cartel? Once used as a plot device, they were discarded except for some fluff text that advanced no plot or sub-plot.

For that matter, where were all the sub-plots? You have the Caruso brothers storyline, and you have the Jack Jr. storyline. They moved along rapidly, yet without seeming to move somehow except in fits and starts. The merging of these two plotlines was as hackneyed and predictable as it was nonsensical. But more importantly, where were all the minor character subplots that are the true joy of the writer's earlier works? Most of the bit players get a page or so of background material, then they do nothing more than have repetitive conversations with each other. None of them has their own storyline. They are window dressing.

I found the most laughable part about the whole situation to be that Jack Ryan, pere, does nearly as much in this novel as Jack Ryan, fils, while never appearing onstage. In almost 500 pages, Little Jack manages to read some reports, tell other people about his brilliant flashes of insight (that anyone with an IQ in the average range would see), fly to Europe, and stab a guy with a weapon that would make Ian Fleming cringe--staying in four star hotels and flying first class in true James Bond fashion. What made the earlier Ryanverse novels so appealing is that the characters are expressly trying *not* to be James Bond. Yet here are their direct successors--people who literally grew up surrounded by adults who knew the trade--zipping about in a Porsche, wearing three thousand dollar suits, not only using credit cards but flashing status-symbol versions, engaging in such poor tradecraft that they could not possibly be related to the main characters of the Jack Ryan/John Clark generation.

I have read precisely one of the Op Center novels published under Clancy's name, and "Teeth of the Tiger" feels like it belongs in that series. It is similarly poorly written, devoid of characterization, and about one hundred and fifty pages longer than its thin plotting can support. One has to wonder if it was similarly ghostwritten. Perhaps a better title for this booh (with apologies to Monty Python) would have been "Contractual Obligation Novel."

I received this book as a gift and was looking forward to a good read only to discover that this is certainly the worst Tom Clancy book I have read. The dialogue is amateurish and unrealistic. Very little happens for more than half the book. The ending is slapdash and unsatisfying. The door is open for another book to continue and resolve the plot line, but there is no chance I will bother reading the next installment. Don't waste your time with this one.