Editing Red Rabbit

{{short description|2002 novel by Tom Clancy}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book
| italic title   = <!--(see above)-->
| name           = Red Rabbit
| image          = Red Rabbit cover.jpg
| image_size     = 
| alt            = 
| caption        = First edition
| author         = [[Tom Clancy]]
| audio_read_by  = Derrick Hagon
| title_orig     = 
| orig_lang_code = 
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| translator     = 
| illustrator    = 
| cover_artist   =
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| series         = Jack Ryan
| release_number = 
| subject        = 
| genre          = {{flatlist|
* [[Thriller (genre)|Thriller]]
* [[Spy fiction]]
* [[Historical fiction]]
}}
| set_in         = 
| publisher      = [[G.P. Putnam's Sons]]
| publisher2     = 
| pub_date       = August 5, 2002
| english_pub_date = 
| published      = 
| media_type     = Print ([[Hardcover]], [[Paperback]]), Audio
| pages          = 640
| awards         = 
| isbn           = 0399148701
| isbn_note      = 
| oclc           = 
| dewey          = 
| congress       = 
| preceded_by    = [[The Bear and the Dragon]]
| followed_by    = [[The Teeth of the Tiger]]
| native_wikisource = 
| wikisource     = 
| notes          =
| exclude_cover  = 
| website        =
}}

'''''Red Rabbit''''' is a [[spy fiction|spy thriller]] novel, written by [[Tom Clancy]] and released on August 5, 2002. The plot occurs a few months after the events of ''[[Patriot Games]]'' (1987), and incorporates the [[Pope John Paul II assassination attempt|1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II]]. Main character [[Jack Ryan (character)|Jack Ryan]], now an analyst for the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], takes part in the extraction of a Soviet defector who knows of a [[KGB]] plot to kill the pontiff. The book debuted at number one on [[The New York Times Best Seller list|''The New York Times'' Best Seller list]].<ref>{{cite news |title=BEST SELLERS: August 25, 2002 |work=The New York Times |date=25 August 2002 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/25/books/best-sellers-august-25-2002.html |access-date=12 July 2018}}</ref>

==Plot summary==
In 1982, [[Pope John Paul II]] privately issues a letter to the [[Polish People's Republic|communist Polish government]], stating that he will resign from the papacy and return to his hometown unless they cease their repression of counterrevolutionary movements in Poland, particularly the [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] trade union. Called the Warsaw Letter, it is later forwarded to [[Moscow]], enraging Committee for State Security ([[KGB]]) director [[Yuri Andropov]]. He decides to plan the Pope's assassination, which he believes will reinvigorate [[communism]] in Eastern Europe, perceived by many to be in a state of decline. Known only by the number 15-8-82-666 for security reasons, the assassin is then selected as a [[Turkish people|Turk]] Muslim (understood to be [[Mehmet Ali Ağca]]), who would then be eliminated by Bulgarian [[Committee for State Security (Bulgaria)|KDS]] officer Boris Strokov afterwards for [[Plausible deniability|deniability]]. The operation is later unanimously approved by the [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]].

Meanwhile, Oleg Zaitzev, a communications officer in the KGB tasked with sending and receiving encrypted dispatches to and from KGB stations across Europe, pieces together the plot to kill the Pope, and becomes deeply troubled with the prospect of murdering an innocent person for political purposes. He later decides to make contact with the local [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] station chief, Edward Foley, as well as his wife and agent Mary Pat, intending to defect and then be extracted out of the Soviet Union with his family, in exchange for providing information on the assassination plot as well as the names of KGB deep-penetration agents in the American and British governments.

The Foleys instruct Zaitzev to bring his family to [[Budapest]], [[Hungarian People's Republic|Hungary]], under the guise of taking a vacation. They are then to be assisted by British [[Secret Intelligence Service]] (SIS) officers stationed in the city, because the CIA station there is compromised; as a result, [[Jack Ryan (character)|Jack Ryan]], former Marine and the CIA liaison to SIS in London, is sent there to represent the agency. One early morning, the Zaitzevs are spirited out of the hotel they were staying. Accompanied by Ryan, they are then smuggled to [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], where they immediately fly to the United Kingdom. SIS agents plant dead bodies that are physically identical to the family in their hotel room, which is then set on fire, thus deceiving the KGB.

After settling down in a safehouse outside [[Manchester]], Zaitzev reveals what he knows about the assassination plot, which alarms the SIS and the CIA. Ryan is later sent to [[St. Peter's Square]] in [[Vatican City]] to accompany the British SIS officers on the ground to ascertain how the attack on the Pope will play out, as well as to try capturing the shooter. At the Pope's weekly audience, Ryan manages to capture Strokov; however, the Pope is shot by the real shooter, Ağca. Nevertheless, the pontiff recovers from his wounds. It is then revealed that Strokov was executed by the British as retaliation for murdering Soviet defector [[Georgi Markov]] on British soil four years ago.

==Characters==
* '''Oleg Ivanovich Zaitzev''': Communications officer in the [[KGB|Committee for State Security]], later a conscience defector to the United States (known in the CIA lexicon as "Rabbit")
* '''[[Jack Ryan (character)|Jack Ryan]]''': [[Central Intelligence Agency]] liaison to the [[Secret Intelligence Service]]
* '''[[Yuri Andropov|Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov]]''': KGB chairman
* '''Colonel Boris Andreyevich Strokov''': Bulgarian [[Committee for State Security (Bulgaria)|KDS]] intelligence officer working for the KGB
* '''Ed Foley''': CIA chief of station in Moscow, under cover as [[Embassy of the United States, Moscow|embassy]] press attaché
* '''Mary Pat Foley''': CIA operative, Ed Foley's wife
* '''Sir Basil Charleston''': [[Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service]]
* '''Simon Harding''': SIS analyst who works directly with Ryan
* '''Arthur Moore''': Director of Central Intelligence
* '''James Greer''': CIA Deputy Director of Intelligence
* '''Robert Ritter''': CIA [[Deputy Director of Operations]]. Distrustful of Ryan, an analyst, taking part in field operations.
* '''Cathy Ryan''': Clinical instructor in ophthalmic surgery on an exchange program at St. Guy's Hospital, London; Jack Ryan's wife

==Themes==
''Red Rabbit'' takes elements from [[Frederick Forsyth]]'s thriller novel ''[[The Day of the Jackal]]'' (1973), although the assassin "is never so fully realized nor as sympathetic as the Jackal". Additionally in the novel, Clancy discusses the tradecraft of [[espionage]], as well as life in Moscow before the fall of communism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Greenberg |first1=Martin H. |title=The Tom Clancy Companion |pages=40–42 |edition=Revised}}</ref>

== Reception ==

The novel received mixed reviews. OAs Marc Cerasini stated in his essay on the novel: "After the history-making events of September 11, 2001, a nostalgic trip back to the [[Cold War]] might not have been the novel Tom Clancy's fans were anticipating." In a mixed review, ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'' derided the lack of suspense, which is "a disappointment when other writers (Forsyth in ''Day of the Jackal'', for one) have shown that there can be enough tension in a fated-to-fail assassination plot to give a stroke to a yoga master". The book was also notable for its disregard for real history, as [[CNN]] reminded that the events in ''[[Patriot Games]]'' occur after the [[wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer|wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana]], which in turn occurs after the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Meagher |first1=L.D. |title=Review: Clancy's 'Red Rabbit' rotten |url=http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/books/09/24/review.clancy/ |website=CNN |access-date=28 July 2018}}</ref>

Conversely, the book was praised for its "believable and encyclopedic" plot; ''Publishers Weekly'' remarked: "It's utterly fascinating to read Clancy's playing out of that likely scenario—is there a writer in the world who brings so much verisimilitude to scenes both high (Politburo meetings) and low (details of spy craft and everyday Soviet life)?"<ref>{{cite web |title=Fiction Book Review: RED RABBIT by Tom Clancy |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-399-14870-5 |website=Publishers Weekly |access-date=28 July 2018}}</ref> ''[[The Washington Post]]'' praised the book, stating: "Clancy moves skillfully among a large cast of characters in Washington, London and Moscow, and develops many of them effectively. [His] writing has improved since the clunky prose and robotic dialogue of his early novels."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Anderson |first1=Patrick |title=Ryan to the Rescue |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/2002/08/18/ryan-to-the-rescue/1bbccce2-6f9a-4daf-be95-c8db0599d824/?noredirect=on |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=28 July 2018}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Jack Ryan fiction}}
{{John Paul II}}

[[Category:2002 American novels]]
[[Category:American thriller novels]]
[[Category:Techno-thriller novels]]
[[Category:Prequel novels]]
[[Category:Attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II]]
[[Category:Novels by Tom Clancy]]
[[Category:Ryanverse]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Pope John Paul II]]
[[Category:Novels set in Budapest]]
[[Category:Novels set in Moscow]]
[[Category:Novels set in Yugoslavia]]
[[Category:Novels set in Rome]]
[[Category:Novels set in London]]
[[Category:G. P. Putnam's Sons books]]