The book opens with James Reece, Navy Seal, concealed on the side of a mountain overlooking a road toward Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He's on a private mission and it involves murder and vengeance. Soon, a financier in a Mercedes drives into sight and Reece puts a bullet through the windshield. One down, many more to go.
Some months earlier, Lt. Cmdr. Reece was in Afghanistan and cursing the brass who gave his team short notice to take out a target. It was unlike normal mission flow and had all the hallmarks of an ambush. The brass was adamant, brushing aside his concerns. Sure enough, just as his team is about to descend a ridge to the target location, the mountainside explodes, killing the majority of the Seals. He calls in support and medical evac only to have a secondary explosion wipe out the arriving Army Rangers and support helicopters. It is the largest loss of life for such a mission. While recovering in a military hospital, the physician discovered that two of slain Seals had brain tumors. The doctor asks if the men had been having headaches; Reece does not mention that he has been suffering headaches. He has hardly arrived home than he learns the only other survivor from the ambush has committed suicide. He doesn't buy it. Worse still, a home invasion resulted in the death of his pregnant wife and 3-year-old daughter. There is no chance that this is all happenstance. Reece means to find out who engineered so many deaths and why. His first thread leads him into a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of government.
There are some impolitic similarities to certain politicians who were of note at the time the book takes place: 2016. There is a cabinet secretary who is expected to announce for the presidency and whose husband is a former politician who, while popular, is infamous for his philandering. Gee, who could this couple be model upon? There is no mention of political parties but there are the occasional digs against the growing surveillance state and gun control. The villains are only too willing to use military forces inside the United States.
One of the few weaknesses of the book is that Reece seems to have just the right asset in the right place. Most of these contacts seem entirely reasonable and fit with the life of a Seal. A couple of them are entirely too convenient, most notably Marco the Mexican millionaire with a private commando squad and an eagerness to provide money and material for Reece's mission. Then there was Liz, a former Army pilot who happens to work for another millionaire who gives her carte blanche to fly around the country. Though I very much liked these characters, it is hard to see how Reece could have eluded capture for his cross-country trail of vengeance without exactly such allies.
A topnotch thriller with plenty of action, frequent suspense, and a larger serving of ultraviolence. This blood-soaked tale of revenge sees Reece use not only his Seal training but also many of the skills that his terrorist adversaries used. Jack Carr, himself a former Navy Seal, has written an outstanding debut novel. Highly recommended.
Now to see the Amazon series.
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