In the early days of his career, Jack Ryan accepts a first assignment as freelance analyst under James Greer of the CIA and faces a mission involving a high-level Soviet defector who has reported a plot to assassinate Pope John Paul II.

Hot-headed American sea captain Boyd Anderson runs to the aid of his brother-in-law's kidnapped daughter, only to lock horns with a fellow rescuer, the adventure-seeking Katey Tyler.

Wealthy young widow Frances Wynn, the American-born Countess of Harleigh, spent the obligatory year in mourning for her philandering husband. With her young daughter in tow, Frances moves from the English countryside and her money-grubbing in-laws to Victorian London, and welcomes her sister, Lily, arriving from New York for her first London social season. When mysterious burglaries start plaguing London's elite, an anonymous tip to the police implicates...

Daisy Dalrymple and her Scotland Yard detective husband, Alec Fletcher, are delighted to move into a home on the outskirts of London they have inherited from Alec's late uncle, until a corpse turns up in their garden bushes amid rumors of a liquor smuggling ring.

Frances Wynn, widow to the late Earl of Harleigh, has no sooner sent her mother and daughter off on a shopping trip to Paris than she and her fiancé, George Hazelton, are socializing with visiting members of the Russian royal family. Scandal also comes calling: Inspector Delaney turns up outside Frances's house with a young French woman claiming she is Mrs. George Hazelton. Mrs. Hazelton, aka Irena, also insists that she is the illegitimate daughter...

"A devil is indeed waiting. The President is coming to London, but not to an entirely warm welcome. A fanatical mullah is offering a blessing to anyone who will assassinate the President, and though most London Muslims think the mullah has crossed the line, a few think otherwise. Urgently, Sean Dillon, General Charles Ferguson, and the rest of the small band known as the "Prime Minister's private army" are called in, augmented by an extraordinary...

It's Christmastime in London and Rafe Bowman has arrived from America for his arranged meeting with Natalie Blandford, the very proper and beautiful daughter of Lady and Lord Blandford. His chiseled good looks and imposing physique are sure to impress the lady in waiting and, if it weren't for his shocking American ways and wild reputation, her hand would already be guaranteed. Before the courtship can begin, Rafe realizes he must learn the rules...