Red Rabbit

In 1982, the Soviet leadership is furious at Pope John Paul II for backing Poland's Solidarity movement. KGB chairman Yuri Andropov starts a plan to have the Pope killed.

Oleg Zaitzev, a KGB communications officer, learns of the plot. He decides to reach the CIA and defect with his family, knowing that discovery would cost him everything.

Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst posted to London as liaison to British intelligence, is drawn into getting Zaitzev out by way of Budapest. He works with the CIA's Moscow station and MI6 while the KGB searches for whoever leaked the plan.

This is a Cold War espionage thriller with plenty of procedural detail, and its trail runs from the Eastern bloc to Vatican City. It draws on the real 1981 attempt on the Pope's life and the long-standing speculation about Soviet and Bulgarian involvement.

Published in 2002, it is the ninth Jack Ryan novel by publication order, though it is a prequel set after Patriot Games. The question is whether Zaitzev and his family can escape before the plan reaches its target.