Format: Hardcover, 576 pages
Release Date: May 16, 2023
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Source: Library
Genre: Thrillers
Navy SEAL James Reece faces a devastating global conspiracy in this
high-adrenaline thriller that is ripped from the headlines—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author and “one of the top writers of political thrillers” (Bookreporter), Jack Carr.
In
1980, a freshman congressman was gunned down in Rhode Island, sending
shockwaves through Washington that are still reverberating over four
decades later.
Now, with the world on the brink of war and a
weakened United States facing rampant inflation, political division, and
shocking assassinations, a secret cabal of global elites is ready to
assume control. And with the world’s most dangerous man locked in
solitary confinement, the conspirators believe the final obstacle to
complete domination has been eliminated. They’re wrong.
From the
firms of Wall Street to the corridors of power in Washington, DC, and
Moscow, secrets from the past have the uncanny ability to rise to the
surface in the present.
With the odds stacked against him, James
Reece is on a mission generations in the making. Unfortunately for his
enemies, the former SEAL is not concerned with odds. He is on the
warpath. And when James Reece picks up his tomahawk and sniper rifle, no
one is out of range.
"Only the dead have seen the end of war. None of us can outrun time."
Only The Dead, by author Jack Carr, is the Sixth installment in the authors Terminal List series. Before we get to what happened to James Reece after the ending In The Blood, let's start with the beginning which connects the past to James future events. It is 1980, and Walter Stowe, a US Congressman, and his wife Martha are returning to Newport, Rhode Island after a day on the ocean. When out comes an assassin who kills Walter, and leaves Martha for dead. Why does this matter? Patience grasshopper.
If you have read the last few books in this series, you know that former Navy SEAL James Reece has been investigating the reason why his father, Tom Reece, was killed, and why he left a curious lock box behind. Before we get to the box, and what's in it that is so important that Russians and even Americans want to see the box destroyed. Reece has spent the past 3 months locked up in a US Penitentiary in Colorado where the baddest of the bad end up. Reece's crime? Assassinating the US President.
Someone has created a trail that blames Reece for the assassination of a US President while he, and his friends, (Raife and his family plus Katie) had just survived yet another assassination attempt by Russians. Reece knows he's innocent and so does the CIA but there are those who would love to see Reece stopped at all costs. As usual with this series, Russians are front and center to everything that happens in this book, and in the past, including to one Tom Reece, former Navy SEAL and CIA operative who was investigating the reports of US POW's from Vietnam and Korea being used as political pawns not only by the Russian government, but the US government as well.
Well, let's say there's a "Collective" of powerful men who want to destroy the country for something that happened in 1944. One could say this is a convoluted conspiracy that goes back to the end of World War II when the US had all the power in the world, and could have turned into another British Empire stretched World Wide, or the Roman Empire who changed history with their inventions. But instead of doing so, America created institutions like the World Bank, and the IMF.
James is on his feet a lot in this story either running, or getting kidnapped, or fighting for his life against Russians, and paid assassinations, all while thinking that it is time to retire once and for all and setting down with reporter Katie. The story jumps from Russia, to Colorado, to Afghanistan, to Washington, D.C. to Israel, and Cyprus to name a few places. There are parts of this book, meaning Ukraine, and Taiwan, that are ripped from the headlines and realistic. And, like it or not, most of the scenarios that Carr writes about are based on first hand accounts, and books that have been written on the subject.
*Thoughts* If you were alive in the late 70's early 80's you know that a certain Republican Senator from Arizona lied to the families of the POW's who never came home from war. Hundreds of Americans are still missing from Vietnam and Korea and Laos and Cambodia. John McCain had every opportunity to tell the families the truth about what really happened. But he only cared about power, and maybe he was part of an actual conspiracy to cover up the truth about why nobody seems to be able to find any of the POW's.
Reece isn't a superhero as you seen in the movies. He is a human being who bleeds, and hurts, and loves not only Katie, but his best friend Raife and those who have stood with him over the course of this series. Reece uses literally every weapon I've ever heard of to take on the conspirators and save the world. The story is one that takes Reece all over the world, including back to Israel in order to save it from a Russian conspiracy.
The ending of this book seems as thought the author wants to give Reece a break so that he and Katie can finally settle down, and open their Whiskey Bar and Book store.
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CHAPTER 1
United States Penitentiary
Florence Administrative Maximum Facility
Range 13
Special Housing Unit
Fremont County, Colorado
DARKNESS.
Suffering.
Prison.
Of the mind.
His soul in chains.
His body in solitary confinement.
Nothing but darkness.
All life is suffering, Reece remembered.
How long have I been in here? Days? Weeks? Certainly not a month.
It was hard to tell when you were living in darkness.
But he wasn’t living in silence.
The voices were his companions.
What are you looking for?
“Salvation,” Reece said.
What truth do you seek?
“I seek a reckoning.”
You’ve found it.
“Have I?”
You are going to die in here, Reece. You deserve to die in here. In the dark. Alone. Your wife died alone.
“No, she didn’t. She had Lucy.”
And an unborn child. You failed them, Reece. You failed them all. Just as you failed your men in Afghanistan. Freddy died on that rooftop in Odessa because of you. You deserve what’s coming.
“And what is that? The grave?”
Death would be too merciful for you. You killed them, Reece.
“No!”
You are beyond redemption. You killed your wife and daughter. Had you been home, had you hung up the gun years earlier, they would still be alive. It was an unwinnable war. You knew that from the start. You studied your history. Those who sent you neglected to study theirs.
“Imperial hubris,” Reece whispered.
They failed you and those they sent to fight. For twenty years. They filled the coffers of their defense industry allies, enjoying dinners and drinks with lobbyists, none of whom had the balls to step into the breach. You knew it. You went anyway. And you didn’t do it for God and country.
“Then who did I do it for?”
You did it for you.
“No.”
Where is your faith?
“It’s gone.”
Gone or dormant?
“I don’t know.”
It never fully disappears.
“I feel forsaken.”
You should. By surviving the ambush in Afghanistan, you sentenced your family to death. Had you died in the Hindu Kush, they would not have been killed in your home. You know it’s true.
“I wanted to hold those responsible accountable.”
But accountability wasn’t enough, was it?
“There needed to be consequences.”
Consequences?
“Yes. I believe in consequences. Judgment.”
Darkness.
Pain.
Suffering.
Is vengeance yours? How does it feel?
“I did what was necessary.”
Did you?
“Yes.”
Or was it because that is all you know? Because that is what you do best? Because that is where you feel most alive?
“I wanted to die.”
You needed to die. Death becomes you, Reece. War—it’s in your blood. You became war.
“It was the only way.”
And you are beyond redemption.
“I know.”
You brought it home. You brought war home to those who sent a generation into combat. You put the fear of God into those growing fat off the dividends of death. You got what you wanted.
“I wanted justice.”
No, you didn’t.
“I wanted revenge.”
You became vengeance.
“A reckoning.”
Did you get it? And what of Katie?
Reece tensed.
If you stay with Katie, she will die.
“I’ll protect her.”
The way you protected your wife and daughter? The way you protected your troop? The way you covered Freddy on that rooftop?
“I need to get out of here.”
You won’t leave this cell. Its walls are already closing in. Soon, even you won’t be able to survive.
“I will.”
Are you a survivor, Reece?
“I’m a fighter.”
Every fighter goes down.
“But they get back up.”
Darkness. Welcome it. Become it. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. You are sealed in your tomb. Forever.
“Bullshit.”
Life is pain. Life is suffering. Why didn’t they just kill you? Why didn’t you kill yourself? Save Katie. She deserves her life.
“There’s a safe-deposit box I need to find.”
What’s inside is poison. And now Katie has the safe-deposit box key. A key to a box you will never find. You put her in danger again. If she dies, you are responsible.
“What’s in it?”
Your father knew.
“What was his tie to Russian intelligence?”
What do you think?
“I don’t know.”
You will rot in this cell, Reece. You will die in darkness. You will never get answers.
“Where there is darkness, there is light.”
Somewhere, but you will never see it again. Death is on the wind.
“No.”
Yes.
“Then this is what I deserve.”
It is what you deserve.
Suffering.
Darkness.
This room will drive you to madness.
“I know.”
All you have is your mind. Your mind and one meal a day. Why do they want you locked up?
“Who is ‘they’?”
Did Alice betray you?
“She warned me.”
Maybe she did both. Is she friend or foe?
“Alice, where are you?”
All those who killed Lauren and Lucy are dead.
“I know.”
You killed them. The man behind 9/11; you killed him, too.
“I did.”
The man responsible for Freddy Strain’s death.
“Dead.”
The man responsible for your father’s death?
“Dead.”
Is he?
“They are all dead.”
Then what of Russian intelligence? Why would Mikhail Gromyko take his own life? The head of the SVR, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, went to the grave with your father’s list on his last breath. The list and Thomas Reece. What was Gromyko protecting? Who was he protecting? You will never know, Reece.
“I will.”
You are not leaving this cell alive. Be it a day or decades, you will die here. Your brain will deteriorate, and you will spend whatever time you have descending into madness. You should smash your head against the wall until death comes. Force yourself to choke on what passes for food. Get creative. End it. Everyone will be better off without you.
“They will.”
No one even knows where you are.
“Someone knows I am here.”
You don’t exist.
“The food coming in once a day tells me someone knows where I am. Existence is enough.”
Is it?
“It has to be. There is still work to do.”
You will never do it.
“Katie is looking for me. She will find me.”
Then she will die.
“No.”
Just like all those you have loved. Dead.
“No!”
You are granite, Reece. You will not change. But those who love you—Katie, the Hastings family—they will be battered to death against you, protecting you. Save them now.
“That’s not true.”
It doesn’t matter. You are locked in this cell. A prisoner of your own mind.
“Freedom.”
No.
“Hope.”
No.
“To exist. That is enough.”
Pain is life. Life is pain. Suffering and pain. That was your life out there. That is your life in here.
“Someone killed the president.”
Someone killed him and framed you.
“Why?”
The answers are out there.
“I am in here.”
You need to get out.
“I do.”
You will never get out. That is your truth.
“What is truth?”
Give up.
“No.”
Quit.
“No.”
Fail.
“No.”
Die.
“Not today.”
Suffering.
Nothing but darkness.
Life is darkness.
All life is suffering.
“It must be enough to exist.”
For now. But if you once again see the light of day, existence won’t be enough.
Reece felt the cold concrete wall against his back.
“No. But it’s enough for today. I’ll get out and get my answers. And when I do, there will be a reckoning.”
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