"In the Blood" by Jack Carr

Above: "In the Blood" - Jack Carr - 459 Pages. I completed reading this book today.

...a sniper duel with the cocky - and skilled - Syrian in Montenegro. Carr's ability to depict Reece in the worst possible situation while saving him in a surprise deus ex machina kept this reader on the edge of his seat.

Another Jack Carr thriller featuring retired Navy Seal James Reece. Carr draws from his own experiences as a Navy Seal, his prodigious knowledge of modern weaponry, and his deep understanding of the geopolitical dynamics of today's dangerous world to keep the reader engaged.

In the African country of Burkina Faso, a plane is blown out of the sky, killing everyone. Among the passengers is a woman who was contracted by the State of Israel to complete a hit on a known target. The media coverage of the crash hits the airwaves soon, thereafter, stunning many, including former Navy SEAL James Reece who had been an operative - and friend - in Iraq teamed up with the slain Israeli.

Reece, now offline as a deep cover CIA operative, sipping wine with his girlfriend and friends in Montana, hearing the news of his Israeli friend's death, is impelled to find her killers. He senses that there are ties in his friend's death to loose ends remaining from his previous under cover activities. For example, Reece has not forgotten his failure to neuter the Syrian sniper assassin whose attempt in Ukraine to assassinate the President of the United States he foiled, but not without losing his close friend and sniper spotter to the shooting skill of the Syrian. Did the Syrian sniper have something to do with the downed plane in Burkina Faso?

Carr segues to the Moscow based heads of Russia's internal (FSB) and external (SVR) intelligence operations who fear Reece will find out about a secret intelligence file involving the nefarious cause of his father's death. Readers learn that that the killing of Reece's Mossad agent friend was engineered by the Russians to lure Reece into a vulnerable situation where their hired Syrian assassin (yes, the same one) could take Reece out. Did Reece know about this Russian file on his father?

Reactivated as a US deep cover operative, Reece, prior to traveling to Burkina Faso, makes two stops at the request of the US president.

The first stop is at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. There, Reece learns how he can make use of a super-secret artificial intelligence (AI) "voice" which will track his phone wherever he is in the world and provide him with intelligence he needs or warnings of danger.

Reece's second stop is in Tel Aviv. He meets with the head of the Mossad (Israeli secret service). He secured the support of the Mossad in his quest to find the Mossad agent's killer. In Tel Aviv, Reece learned from the Mossad head that the Syrian assassin had been introduced to the Russians by a former Mossad agent, operating a front as a bookseller in Turin. The Turin contact's real function was to function as an independent broker of arms and mercenaries. The "bookseller" was still loyal to Israel despite his ostensibly "neutral" terrorist/arms brokerage business. Hey... he didn't know that the Syrian he introduced to the Russians was going to kill the Israeli agent... what?! The "bookseller" was wheelchair bound due to his role in the Wrath of God operation where Mossad agents located and assassinated the Palestinian terrorists who killed members of the Israeli Olympic team at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. "Bookseller" had reason to believe that the Syrian assassin, in 1972 a young terrorist operative, inflicted the wound that crippled him.

While in Israel Reece, with the help of the Mossad leader, visits the sister of the killed Israeli agent. The sister has custody of the children of her sister, the Israeli agent. Reece wants to convey to her her sister's sentiment (she did her dangerous work because of her love for Israel) expressed to Reece while she was fighting for her life post a terrorist attack in the Green Zone of Baghdad. But, what? While Reece is visiting at the sister's house at a kibbutz outside of Tel Aviv a half dozen black clothed Syrian terrorists start shooting up the sister's house. How do the terrorists know where Reece is? Who is behind this attack? The sister is killed. Reece, using his amazing, toxic male, Navy Seals skills, survives, aided at the last minute by Mossad agents - "the cavalry." Note: No spoiler alerts are required for my plot summaries. Carr's write ups of the weapon intricacies and fight sequences make for exciting reading irrespective of whether one knows the plot or not.

Reece's Syrian sniper/terrorist nemesis, now identified as the plane downing perp, was found by the CIA even before Reece arrived in Burkina Faso. On arrival in Burkina Faso, Reece joined a CIA mission to helicopter the Syrian to a CIA safe house where the prisoner could be interrogated. But in the chopper, a rogue Burkina Faso soldier attempted to shoot Reece. The helicopter crashed and the Syrian sniper escaped. Was Reece's would be assassin on the chopper in cahoots with the Syrian? The Russians? What, if anything, was the connection between the attempted killing of Reece on the helicopter and the incident at the kibbutz?

Reece travels to Turin to meet with the "bookseller" who, he feels, can get him closer to the Syrian assassin. Russian intelligence is good... really good! Using phone tracking, employing Hezbollah terrorists, headed by a seasoned sixty something Russian operative with close personal ties to the Russian spymasters, the Russian led perps ambushed the Turin meeting. Reece escapes, of course drawing on his superior skills as a shooter and a fighter. He saves "Bookseller" as well. "Bookseller,' wheelchair bound, becomes a partner in Reece's ongoing quest to find the Syrian assassin. Reece learns from the dying sixty-something Russian Turin attack leader how to reach the Syrian and about his connection with his bosses who run the Russian spy apparatus.

Next, we have a sniper duel in Montenegro between Reece and the cocky - and skilled - Syrian. Carr's ability to depict Reece in the worst possible situation while saving him in a surprise deus ex machina keeps the reader on the edge of his seat.

Reece travels from Montenegro to Moscow to do in the Russian spy masters. We know the result. Now, tell me again, Mr. Carr, how Reece gets undetected into Russia and sets up a meeting in Gorky Park in Moscow between the two Russian spy leaders?

It's all over, right? Mossad agent's assassin killed in a Montenegro sniper duel. Russian spy masters eliminated in Gorky Park. A pat on the back for Reece by the American President. Reece is back on the remote Montana property sipping wine with his indulgent girlfriend and South African (Sealous Scouts) mentor friends.

But wait. Novel loose ends. What was behind the Burkina Faso soldier targeting Reese on that helicopter ride? Were there interests other than the Russians out there after Reece? After all, Reece had many enemies in the US military and intelligence world (refer to past Carr novels). And, what's with the illusive Russian folder containing information about Reece's father? These questions are left unanswered in "In the Blood." And, as a bevy of black helicopters descend on Reece's Montana property, with only a brief warning to Reece from the Lackland AFB AI "voice," the next Jack Carr novel appears to be taking shape.

To be sure, Carr's novels are pure escape... fast paced, no nonsense, spare language, page turning prose. And there is nothing wrong with a good thriller from time to time. Carr, a Park City resident, is praised by the best for his breathtaking, fast paced thriller writing: Joe Rogan, Brad Thor, and more. But there is also a lot of good stuff to learn from his writings, particularly about firearms and sniper tactics. The acronym glossary for US, Russian and international organizations is twenty-six pages long.

Carr doesn't just write plot dialogue. His breakneck paced narrative is interspersed with wisdom and insight.

Take this:

"Reece glanced down at the Rolex Submariner on his wrist, the second hand sweeping clockwise as a constant reminder that once those precious moments were gone, there was no getting them back."

Sometimes, when I'm looking at the microwave clock tick down the cooking time for leftovers or some such, I reflect on how this time is being wasted in my ever-shortening life.

Or insights like this:

"Now, without question, the most powerful entities are those who control the data. The person who has access to that data is the most powerful and dangerous person the world has ever known."

Does Reece mean Jeff Bezos? Mark Zuckerberg? Sergi Brin?" Elon Musk's seeming folly acquisition of Twitter takes on new light when one considers Reece/Carr's posit here: data is power.

This is my fourth (of five) Jack Carr novels. So, clearly, I'm hooked. The streaming rendition of Jack Carr's first novel, "The Terminal List," is excellent, staying true to the Carr's intent.