Jack Carr on why his thrillers landed him in hot water with the White House

You spent 20 years serving in the US military. What led you to join the Navy and what were some of the most notable experiences you had during your time as a Navy SEAL?

I always knew I wanted to serve my country in uniform. There was never even a question about that. It was a calling. I also wanted to test myself in the toughest military training I could find. I learned a lot in Afghanistan 2003 and was able to apply and build on that experience in follow-on deployments to Iraq in 2004, 2005, 2006.

The campaign to re-take the city of Najaf in the summer of 2004 was a standout time in my memory. I took the emotions and feelings associated with much of that experience and applied them to the pages of The Terminal List.

Most Australian readers are only just being introduced to your hero, James Reece, with the release of The Terminal List, but you’ve written at least four James Reece thrillers. How would you describe him as a character?

I am writing the fourth book, The Devil’s Hand, now. It will hit shelves in the U.S. next April. James Reece is a former Navy SEAL Sniper who becomes an officer and is at that stage in his time in uniform when he’s decided to leave that life behind and take care of his family. That is the stage I was in when I started writing.

James Reece is someone you’d want to have a beer with but who can flip the switch and get the job done. He has the training, experience, drive, determination, and grit to deliver justice on his terms.

Your mother was a librarian, so you must have had an upbringing surrounded by books – what stories were you drawn to as a kid?

By the time I was ten, I was reading the same books as my parents. I was naturally drawn to books with characters who had backgrounds I wanted to have in real life one day, so I read everything I could by David Morrell, Nelson DeMille, Stephen Hunter, Marc Olden, A.J. Quinnell, J.C. Pollock, Louis L’Amour, and Tom Clancy. I have such wonderful memories of reading those authors growing up and always knew I’d one day follow in their footsteps.

We’re used to political non-fiction titles getting caught up in legal challenges from the White House, but your second thriller True Believer was also delayed for months by the Department of Defense. Why was it delayed, and what kind of information had to be redacted from the book?

All three novels went through the Department of Defense review process. Their ‘30-day review’ was close to seven months with both True Believer and Savage Son. We had to delay the release of True Believer from April to July in 2019.

Everything they took out can be found in publicly available government documents that no right-minded person would believe to be sensitive in any way. In dealing with the government one should not expect common sense to be part of the equation.

How accurately do you think the military experience is portrayed in popular media, and what makes an authentic war story?

It’s tough because everyone’s experience is different in war and if you haven’t been there then you are filtering your perception of other people’s experience through your preconceived notions and biases and then applying it to the page or screen. That’s why Oliver Stone’s Platoon was so powerful, because he’d lived the experience in Vietnam. Blackhawk Down did a fantastic job as did the more recent 13 Hours.

What do you think are the main aspects of an authentic, unputdownable thriller?

I’ve been a student of the genre my entire life and know that different aspects of the thriller will appeal to different people. There are some common characteristics that every thriller has, the first being that every chapter has to leave the reader wanting more, wanting to go on to that next chapter. There needs to be some misdirection, often times related to a conspiracy, a twist the reader did not see coming makes it fun especially when they go back and say, “I can’t believe I missed that!”

The two most important aspects of any novel, not just a thriller, for me as a reader is that the protagonist is likable and that the story has heart. Just like in real life, readers don’t want to spend time with someone they don’t like and respect.

How do you spend your time when you’re not writing?

These days I’m spending time with my family. We try to get outside as much as we can. We live in the mountains, so we are skiing, hiking, and river rafting every chance we get.

Your research has taken you to the wilds of Mozambique and Russia – once the world returns to normal (touch wood) where’s your first international plane ticket taking you?

That all depends on where I decide to go with book five… Israel is on the short list.

The Terminal List is, at its core, a tale of revenge. What fascinates you about that theme and how do you explore revenge in The Terminal List?

I always gravitated towards books and movies with the theme of revenge. There is something primal that draws us towards stories with that theme. I think a lot of that has to do with all the laws and regulations that hold us in check as a society. Getting to live vicariously through a fictional character who abandons those laws and becomes a judge, jury and executioner gives those of us who know we can’t do that some degree of satisfaction.

I begin Part II of Savage Son with a quote from Robert E. Howard’s The Tower of the Elephant: ‘Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.’

Find out more about The Terminal List.