Reviews: ‘Dead or Alive’ by Tom Clancy with Grant Blackwood, and ‘The Carrie Diaries’ by Candace Bushnell

By Tom Clancy with Grant Blackwood (Putnam, 950 pages, $28.95)

At 950 pages, Tom Clancy’s latest tale of international intrigue would have to be exceptionally well plotted and masterfully told to keep readers enthralled. It is neither. Instead, “Dead or Alive” is bloated, meandering and in the end, just plain boring. Clancy — or perhaps co-writer Grant Blackwood — reunites several favorite Clancy characters, former President Jack Ryan, John Clark, Ding Chavez and enough stereotypical Middle Eastern bad guys to start a war several times over. Two compelling characters — a distinctly Jack Reacher-ish First Sgt. Sam Driscoll and secret-agent-wannabe Jack Ryan Jr. — aren’t nearly enough to hold the sprawling threads together. When I found an editing error on page 915 of the finished book, I couldn’t help but pity the editor who’d probably nodded off by then. (“His right arm was cinched into the leather restraint, while the right, the one on the same side as the equipment, was stretched across a folded towel ... “) If you’re looking for a high-quality espionage tale, read — or re-read — “The Hunt for Red October,” Clancy’s smashing debut, which in its current hardcover edition weighs in at a tidy, driving 387 pages.

COLLEEN KELLY, DEPUTY DESIGN DIRECTOR

By Candace Bushnell (Balzer + Bray, 400 pages, $18.99)

“Sex and the City” progenitor Candace Bushnell reclaims Carrie Bradshaw in a young-adult novel suitable for adults. Bushnell, who developed the character in her mid-1990s biographical essays for the New York Observer, provides her doppelganger’s back story, but not as a match to the popular HBO series. She sets “The Carrie Diaries” during Carrie’s senior year of high school in 1980s Connecticut (and coyly withholds exactly when). Carrie is the oldest of three daughters whose mom has died and whose analytic father is somewhat clueless. She deals with literary ambitions, parties, boys, betrayals, “mean girls” and other hazards of high school. The virginal protagonist and her tight circle of interesting friends are chafing for adulthood: meeting at bars, smoking weed, hooking up and breaking up. Bushnell’s writing style is well matched to the young-adult genre, and her observations and characterizations are as sharp as ever. And proving that the provocative party girl carries on, “Summer and the City: A Carrie Diaries Novel” will be out in April.