Revenge Conspiracy Thriller Masterpiece

When liberal politicians (of both the civilian and military variety) purposely send a seal team into an ambush resulting in dozens of American servicemens' deaths, and then have the sole survivor's family murdered it's time for some serious payback. Obviously these backstabbing weasels have just pissed off the wrong man. Page turning goodness ensues. It would almost seem over the top if so much political BS hadn't happened during the Obama reign of terror (remember Benghazi or the Seal Team helicopter shoot down? How about the death of the Supreme Court Chief Justice?). The conspiracy in this book pales in comparison. Anyway, I haven't enjoyed a revenge thriller this much since reading Term Limits by Vince Flynn. Other revenge thrillers I have read and enjoyed include: The First Rule by Robert Crais, The Chinaman by Stephen Leather, Without Remorse by Tom Clancy and Fade by Kyle Mills. I'll be looking for more books from Jack Carr in the future. ( )

After this book, I think I have finally discovered a comparable series to Jack Reacher and Lee Child. James Reece's motivation, with his seal team and family both being killed and back story, as a long-standing and decorated Navy Seal, are excellent and believable. the level of support he receives is smoetimes hard to believe. Who has friends that would go to that length to help with their money and skills, that Reece gets here? But the action scenes are described well and in detail and the. book is a fun to read action fantasy, like watching, a Stallone, Statham, Norris, Van Damme or Schwartzenegger movie. I've started the next one already. The thorough glossary of acronyms. etc., is very helpful. ( )

An action packed thriller with a lot of violence and death. Quite a macho read and near the end I did find it did drag on a bit. ( )

If you want a good action thriller along the lines of Mark Greaney or Jonathan Maberry, then this may be for you.

Carr does a lot right—he really does—but he also very much wears his politics right on his sleeve. And...well...some of it ain't pretty.

But, if you can get past that, then it's a pretty good story. Basically, he's taken Marvel's The Punisher, and made it more realistic. ( )

There seems to be a trend in movies lately to make characters gray. They're not bad, but they're not really all that good, either. With so many gray characters out there, it can be refreshing to find a hero you can cheer for without any reservations. Jack Carr provides that kind of character, telling a satisfying story about a good guy who wears the whitest of white hats and where the villains are unequivocally deserving of everything they're gonna get. His hero is sympathetic, and if Carr uses cheap tricks to create sympathy, remember that it's a thriller, not literary fiction.

I grew up on the likes of Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum, and while it's been a lot of years since I've read anything by either, Carr's writing, in comparison, feels more straightforward. Where Clancy might spend chapters setting up a villain and the rest of his book sending Jack Ryan on a hunt for the villain (or for the Red October, as the case may be), Carr cuts right to the chase, drops you right in the action, and through quick flashbacks fills in the gaps. It makes for an page-turner, the perfect novel for warm summer evenings. I listened to it while I was mowing the lawn and then read it long after lights out to see what happened. It’s action driven, a close cousin to Top Gun or The Dirty Dozen, and it’s worth every page.

With The Terminal List, you know who the bad guys are almost from the beginning and the only question in your mind is how are they going to meet their demise. Carr sounds like he knows his subject well; he is, after all, a former Navy Seal himself, and every page feels authentic, sometimes violently so: James Reese is a Seal and he's getting revenge--he's not filing lawsuits here. Expect explosive and deadly results as he deals with the conspirators with extreme prejudice.

Unfortunately, I read The Terminal List right before watching Chris Pratt play the role on Amazon, and it was a disappointment. The changes for the show just don't improve the plot. Jack Carr had it right the first time, and I'm a big fan of not messing with a good thing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. (And when in doubt, trust the book. It’s always better than the movie.)

The Terminal List was a fun way to close out the summer, and I think I'll try out the sequel to see what Carr does with his character. There were few loose ends in The Terminal List, so I'm predicting that James Reese becomes something of a one-man A-Team. "If you have a problem if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... the A-Team." ( )