Baltimore: Tom Clancy, the top of the line creator of "The Hunt for Red October" and other uncontrollably solid mechanical thrillers, has perished. He was 66.

Penguin Group (USA) said Wednesday that Clancy bit the dust Tuesday in Baltimore. The distributer did not unveil an explanation for passing.

Clancy touched base on smash hit records in 1984 with "The Hunt for Red October." He sold the original copy to the first distributer he tried, the Naval Institute Press, which had never purchased unique fiction.

A string of different hits soon emulated, incorporating "Red Storm Rising," "Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger."

Clancy had said his dream had been essentially to distribute a book, confidently an exceptional one, with the intention that he might be in the Library of Congress inventory. Some of his books were later made into movies.