"Savage Son" by Jack Carr

Above: "Savage Son" - Jack Carr - 391 pages.

And this book, "Savage Son." We are to believe that a protected higher-up in the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) can lure a top former Seal, now CIA operative, to a remote Russian Island to be tracked and hunted? And that the CIA operative (Reece) went on this mission against the express wishes of the CIA.... and that the Russian hunter was tipped off as to the CIA operative's (Reece) plans by the Chief of Staff to the US President? C'mon!

I completed reading the above book today.. Third in the Carr series on former Navy Seal, James Reece.

First book: "The Terminal List." Reece is framed by Navy higher ups who are trying to suppress a medical experiment gone wrong on him and his unit. Reece gets revenge but becomes a wanted man.

Second book: "True Believer." Reece goes underground in Zimbabwe, sheltered by uncle of his Navy Seal friend. CIA finds him... but, offers to eliminate charges stemming from his revenge spree in the first book, if he helps break up a Russian conspiracy to assassinate the US president in Ukraine. Reece and some loyal friends succeed in this endeavor, but some high level Russian perps get away.

Third book... "Savage Son." A former CIA agent gone rogue, defects to Russia and plots an assassination attempt on Reece and his Zimbabwean Seal buddy, in retribution for Reeces successful foiling, in book two, of the Russian plot to assassinate the US president. The rogue CIA agent's plot, hatched from Moscow, is undermined by another Russian, a sadistic insider, who subsitutes humans for big game in his hunts on his private island off the coast of Kamchutka. Reese is lured to the island and becomes one of the hunted.

It's best to read Carr's books on James Reece in sequence.

As the plots unfold, the series delves deeply into Seal tradecraft, weapons, tactics etc. Putative Pentagon censorship and resultant blacked out sections of the books lead to the reader's believing that he's observing actual accounts of front line players in the world of high stakes international intrigue. People die and descriptions of same are graphic.

Admittedly, Carr's plots seem farfetched. "The Termanal List." Navy brass put experimental brain implants in Seal unit and cancer in each Seal is the upshot? So, arrange for the unit to be set up in a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan? I mean... common! Seal returns home... his family killed in a Navy brass sanctioned assassination attempt where he escapes.... and he personally goes and wipes out all of the higer up, brass, perps? C'mon!

And this book, "Savage Son." We are to believe that a protected higher up in the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) can lure a top former Seal, now CIA operative, to a remote Russian Island to be tracked and hunted? And that the CIA operative (Reece) went on this mission against the express wishes of the CIA.... and that the Russian hunter was tipped off as to the CIA operative's (Reece) plans by the Chief of Staff to the US President? C'mon!

But... the fantastical plots, suffused with detailed descriptions of tradecraft, training, legerdemain, savvy, and guts on an international stage, as Reece maneuvers through complicated obstacles to achieve his goals, makes for staying-up-at-night-to-finish, "smart and tough guy aspirant" kind of reading.

Good escape thriller reading. Short chapters. Fast paced narratives. Equal to Silva and Child. Child writes a very positive back cover blurb for Carr.