First Look: 'The Terminal List' by Jack Carr

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posted on February 16, 2018
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In his debut novel, "The Terminal List," author Jack Carr condenses his decades of experience as a Navy SEAL into a single volume detailing the revenge story of the fictional Lt. Cmdr. James Reece, a Navy SEAL wronged by his own government.

The story begins when Reece, on his last deployment as a SEAL, loses his entire team in an ambush that also led to the deaths of the airmen coming to their rescue. Returning home following this loss, Reece also finds his loved ones murdered. Who could be responsible for these horrifying events? It wasn't a far-flung foreign enemy. It was a home-grown conspiracy that involved members at the highest levels of the U.S. government.

"The Terminal List" follows Reece on his mission of revenge as he targets the names on his titular roll. In doing so, he applies more than a decade of experience learned on the battlefield in his hunt for these corrupt members of Washington D.C.'s elite.

While the story of Reece and his tale of retribution are fiction, what certainly isn't fiction is the body of experience used by author Jack Carr to describe the tactics, tools and encounters in the book. His years spent on the front lines offer readers a unique look into the secretive world of the Navy SEALs, as he describes the emotions and mindset encountered in heavy combat.

Carr himself spent decades in the Navy SEALs, having served in special-operations teams on four continents. In these teams, he served as team leader, platoon commander, troop commander and task-unit commander.

"This is one of the most exciting debuts I've read in ages," said Emily Bestler of Emily Bestler Books, a division of Simon & Schuster responsible for bringing authors like Vince Flynn and Brad Thor to the market. "While this is a work of fiction, Jack Carr's decades of experience as a SEAL, ranging from communications and intelligence to leading sniper teams to commanding a Special Operations Task Unit, give "The Terminal List" the on-the-ground authenticity that breaks a political thriller out from the pack and certainly grabbed me from page one."

As a former SEAL, Carr held a number of security clearances that gave him access to sensitive information. Before publishing, Carr submitted the manuscript of "The Terminal List" to the Department of Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review. As a result of that review, several pieces of information contained in the book have been redacted for national-security reasons. Carr left these redactions in place, giving readers a glimpse into a world that remains highly secretive and sensitive.

Carr also contends that, while "The Terminal List" is entirely fictional, the story and the scenes contained within the work are born from emotions and experiences from his lengthy service in the military.

"While this is a work of fiction, each scene draws from emotions that I experienced during real-world events over 20 years in the military," Carr wrote in the preface. "These emotions, coupled with time in combat, add an authenticity to the novel that we hope makes for a thrilling reading experience."

"The Terminal List" is available for pre-order pending its release on March 6, 2018. The suggested retail price on the novel is $26.

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