Review and summary: True Believer, by Jack Carr

“Your life can change overnight” goes the old saying.

No fictional characters lives than more than James Reese in True Believer, the second book in Jack Carr’s series which chronicles the adventures of the former Navy SEAL commander.

Once a celebrated SEAL, Reece is now America’ most-wanted domestic terrorist, thanks to the events in Carr’s first book, The Terminal List.

This story spills overseas, as Reese is given a path forward to a presidential pardon in exchange for hunting down a deadly Iraqi terrorist. Reese’s journey, spanning numerous countries, comes with many twists, turns, travels, and, of course, plenty of violence.

Some have critized this book as too long, or lacking pacing in the middle portion. I disagree. Everything in the book has purpose and moves not just the story, but the character of James Reece, forward. Sometimes, the most tumultuous action occurs inside a character, rather than in the world around them.

True Believer is a fast and furious follow up to The Terminal List, and if you loved that one, you’ll likely love this one also. Carr’s second installment differs from the first though: the setting is global, the pacing is more varied and more time is spent on character development with James Reese.

Favorite quotes and passages from True Believer

“There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.” —Ernest Hemingway

“The consolidation of power at the federal level in the guise of public safety is a national trend and should be guarded against at all costs. This erosion of rights, however incremental, is the slow death of freedom.”

Reece chuckled as he poured the steaming liquid into an enameled mug painted with the Black Rifle Coffee Company’s logo.

arrow, target, string, archer as one being, one natural system.

Stance, grip, shoulder, anchor, peep, pull, and finish, Reece thought, reviewing the basics. As with anything in life, the best do the basics exceptionally well.

There was only the now; the flow of the process. The discipline. There was only the shot.

Those men and women on the front lines provided the blanket of freedom that allowed Reece and Katie to enjoy this evening by the lake. Reece would never forget that they were out there.

“Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.” —Robert E. Howard, The Tower of the Elephant

While working for the CIA, Reece had learned techniques carefully designed to elicit responses from the most hardened Islamic terrorists. What he took away was that regardless of the technique, as an interrogator, you had to offer hope. Hope was the key.

“Ah,” Andy said, taking a swig of his vodka. “In the Cold War days, we used to do a lot of that.” “What?” “Figuring out how to get the job done when senior intelligence officials or politicians told us we couldn’t.” “How did you handle it?” “We out-thought them,” Andy said, tapping his temple with his finger. “We used to call it plausible deniability. Sexy term for giving your superiors the ability to say they had no idea what you were up to and ‘yes, sir, I’ll rein those cowboys in right away and this will never happen again, sir.’ ” Andy chuckled. “Your old man did it more than once.”

“Take a breath, look around, make a call,”

twenty-two veterans who took their own lives each day in the United States.

as Reece knew all too well, no plan survives first contact with the enemy.

Edo had been born and bred for this very task. While some dogs longed to chase tennis balls or retrieve ducks, Edo wanted nothing more than to kill terrorists.

Never tell me the odds.