I first heard about Jack Carr’s political thriller series while listening to the Higher Line podcast. To be honest, I was a little skeptical when I saw the description for the episode – a Navy Seal writing books. How many jokes can we make about that and have it keep coming true? As I listened though, I didn’t get that vibe from the author. Mr. Carr seemed to be someone with a genuine love for the stories he writes that are so strongly influenced by his prior career. By the end of the podcast, I was convinced I needed to read at least his first book and find out for myself if the books were all they were cracked up to be. As anyone who enjoys reading knows, the list of books you want to read far outweighs the time you have to devote to reading them. With finals coming up and two young boys at home, I knew I wouldn’t be diving into a novel anytime soon, so I added it to the list and continued to focus on other matters.

Fast forward a few weeks ago and I see Mickey Schuck discussing Jack Carr’s newest release in his series and how much he enjoyed it. I briefly discussed the book with him and then took the plunge. With college out of the way and having just finished another book I had been reading, it was time to simply enjoy a good book. Since small children make holding a book and turning pages one handed difficult, I opted for the Kindle version. The Terminal List is a 462 page thriller that I downloaded on a Thursday night, and by the following Tuesday I was finished. It is that good of a read. I don’t have a lot of free time, but when you have a good story to read, you find ways to make it work. This usually means losing sleep to keep the story going, and I did lose a bit of sleep to this story. When you find yourself wrapped up in a great read, you don’t just have trouble putting the book down. You find yourself thinking about the plot when you can’t read, and then you manage to pick the book up again and read a little more.

I don’t like going too in depth on the actual contents of the story since it kills the thrill, and I don’t believe I could do the story justice. In short the main character is a man named James Reece, an officer in one of the SEAL teams, and he experiences tremendous loss and injustice. Rather than letting it finish him off, he decides to take matters into his own hands and distribute justice as he sees fit. There’s quite a few twists throughout the book, and the ending alone contained several that I was not expecting. While normally I’d be disappointed in closing a story so quickly, I have two more of his books to read, and I’m currently halfway through the second already.

There are several distinct elements to Jack Carr’s writing that set his work apart from other political thrillers. I grew up reading Tom Clancy novels throughout high school. The complexity and depth of The Terminal List reminds me a lot of those books. Seemingly random events build alongside the main story and end up catapulting themselves into the plot. Unlike Clancy’s novels, I did not find myself struggling to push through an overly descriptive or less than thrilling chapter. From start to finish, I never once put the book down because I wanted to stop reading; I always wanted to keep the story going. While this book is classified as a political thriller, there is far more excitement and action than most other political thrillers I’ve read.

Another reason the book reads so well is the accuracy and realism of the story. Jack Carr has far more experience with the environment described in his stories than most authors writing similar novels, and it shows in his book. Not only are the weapons and tactics used realistic and correct, but the bureaucracy and frustrations experienced by those in the military is so perfectly captured that I found myself cheering on James Reece for actions he took against such frustrations.

The author has no idea who I am. I was not paid for this review and no one asked anyone at Spotter Up to do a write up for this novel. This is simply a great read, and I felt like sharing with anyone who might be reading this so they too can enjoy this book. Now that I’ve shared my thoughts, I’m going to dive back into book #2 and hopefully this will convince a few of you to dive into the story yourself.

Material Disclosure

I received this product as a courtesy from the manufacturer via Spotter Up so I could test it and give my honest feedback. I am not bound by any written, verbal, or implied contract to give this product a good review. All opinions are my own and are based off my personal experience with the product.

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