Chapter By Chapter> Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image chapter 65

Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter (or possibly multiple chapters for this one) of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.

So our heroes were screwing up last chapter even though they were winning, but at least in this book it made more sense than all the screw-ups in the last novel. Still have a chance to fix all of this.

We’re almost done with this book and I can’t wait. It’s not that I don’t like long novels, but I don’t remember being this bored most of the time reading the E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial novelization, or the few long Star Trek novels I have. It could be all the unnecessary padding, the odd chapter lengths, the clock bouncing between time zones…these are problems that still remain with this novel that showed up in the first one. I almost prefer the shorter chapters at this point because I can get done with it faster, but that’s due to restrictions I placed on myself for the review format. However, I’m not sure I’d enjoy it even if was reading this just on my own. Even with Chapter By Chapter I want to have fun with what I’m reading, then analyze it critically. This has not been that book.

One chapter this week, so let’s get to it.

Chapter 65: Tuesday, 4:57 PM, St. Petersburg, Russia

Peggy and George are meeting with Volko, but soon figure out that it’s a trap. The pair separate and then we follow George as Volko is shot and George makes his escape. We don’t know what happened to Peggy or the woman who was watching them, just George, Volko, and another man who was also watching them.

Where this chapter works in how things are described. I’ve never seen the inside of the museum, but I can follow what’s going on. The trivia of the paintings is more like how such trivia should have been done in this whole book. It’s short because it doesn’t move the plot, but still of interest for setting the scene. Had such moments been more like this I would have had fewer complaints. As it is either ghostwriter Jeff Rovin or someone editing this book really liked all the useless trivia and backstory that may be useful for the story bible, but boring in the story itself. We also get our pair pretending to be a couple to blend in, and as we’re focused on George we get his thoughts of slight guilt, being a happily married man.

We also see the difference between his usual method of operations as a member of a military unit versus Peggy’s as a British agent. One of Striker’s rules is never leave a man behind, but Peggy points out that splitting up so one of them can report to their allies what the current situation is rather than disappear. Given what happened with Peggy’s companion and the agents they had, that certainly makes sense. As George describes it, it’s the team player soldier versus the lone wolf agent, both necessities in their line of service, and right now George is in a secret agent’s world.

As for the woman that was watching them and now somewhere with Peggy, how many rubles do you want to bet it’s the same woman who killed Fields-Hutton and fate is giving Peggy her revenge? We’ll have to wait to find out. Next time starts a series of two chapter reviews and neither of next week’s chapters will be checking in with the agent. The week after, we’ll see what happens to our guest agent.