“The Terminal List” is Jack Carr's entertaining first effort. If you’re familiar with the style and pacing of Brad Thor, Lee Child, or Steven Pressfield, you will enjoy this military-based political conspiracy thriller.
Navy SEAL commander James Reece finds himself in the middle of a quagmire of corruption that goes from the hills of Afghanistan all the way up to the White House.
The author does a good job of not mincing words as he weaves his way through the catastrophic events that back Reece into a corner with nowhere to run but straight through the conspirators who blew up his team, murdered his family, and continue to double-cross his trust. As a bonus, he also is saddled with a mysterious brain tumor.
At times, the dialogue between the “bad guys” can be a bit cringeworthy, but that doesn’t take away at all from the reader pulling for Reece to go into full reaper mode and fulfill his mission of vengeance. The author does a good job of humanizing Reece throughout, even when he is brutally executing his foes.
I couldn’t tell based on the ending if the author was planning on turning this storyline into a series. It clearly worked out as book #7, “Red Sky Mourning”, is currently on the best sellers list. That one is apparently the final book in the James Reece series.
For context, I have never seen the adapted TV series starring Chris Pratt as Reece, so couldn’t tell you if it’s any good. However, it recently got picked up for a second season so that’s cool.
3 / 5 stars
Thank you for reading!