The chief engineer of one of the SSNs in the book is a Lt. Tom Clancy
*SPOILER ALERT* (if you read "cold is the sea, don't read further)
I really like the first part, where he describes Hyman Rickover (under a different name), nuclear training and the likes. Almost reads like a documentary book. Replace Adm. Brighting with Adm. Rickover, Richardson with Beach himself and the CNO with Arleigh Burke, you have a almost realistic account. The characters match their historic counterparts perfectly. The "under-ice submarine patrol" part is quite clancyish. The only thing really different from Clancy is that Beach's book is set in the early 1960s, and written in 1978.
The soviets deliberately ramming a SSBN under the ice, having a ECM defence against homing torpedoes and a fixed missile installation in the pack ice is just too far fetched. But just as I was thinking "at least he consequently lets the narrative stay with his heroes and does not do clancy style bad guy cameos" I turn the page and "Capt. Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov was angry......"
Dammit, I never took creative writing but even I get that you do not drastically alter your narrative style on the last 50 pages....
Also, the sheer volume of torpedoes running around under the ice pack while BOTH sides had communication with their respective subs would have triggered nuclear war in reality, especially since the book is set around the time of the Cuban missile crisis. Neither the soviets, nor the americans (who naturally only "return fire"
) have any qualms of engaging each other.