The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy

As brief as I can be, the novel is not as good as the film. Perhaps that's because I've seen the movie so many times before reading the book.

The Russians have a submarine that can move under the water without using propellers; it runs by pushing water through it's system. They call it the caterpillar drive.

The captain of the sub decides to defect to the United States and take his sub with him.

The Russians aren't very happy about this, of course, so they send their fleet after him.

Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst, believes the Russian captain wants to defect instead of believing what the Russians tell them that he is going to attack America.

The book becomes a race game to who can get to the silent submarine first.

Not as good as the movie. You just can't beat Sean Connery doing a Russian accent...or actually NOT doing a Russian accent.