Jon Crunch: Book Review: Jack Carr’s “The Devil’s Hand” is an Infectious Thriller

By Jon Brooks

“Luck is the residue of preparation...”

The one thing I’ll say about Jack Carr is that the man doesn’t write the same book twice.

A couple of weeks ago I reviewed Don Bentley’s new Mitch Rapp thriller “Capture or Kill” (read my review). In that novel, Bentley dives into the hunt for Osama bin Laden in 2011.

When I was deciding on my next book to read, I thought that reading/reviewing Jack Carr’s “The Devil’s Hand” would serve as an interesting companion piece to Bentley’s thriller.

“The Devil’s Hand” finds former Navy SEAL James Reece training to officially join the ranks for the Central Intelligence Agency’s Ground Branch.

“Bureaucracy was, after all, bureaucracy.”

The opening pages of the novel have a not-too-terribly-amused Reece taking a lie detector test — a preamble to his training. The entire sequence also serves as an opportunity for Carr to get uninitiated readers up to speed on his protagonist.

Reece dealt with a considerable amount during Carr’s first three novels (“The Terminal List,” “True Believer,” and “Savage Son”). In those books, much of the heroics came from a more personal place as readers gained insight into Reece’s life.

This time out, the stakes are considerably higher.

Reece and his compatriots are battling a mysterious virus that threatens peace, prosperity, and the American way.

The leader of the free world is President Alec Christensen, a former “techpreneur” whose fiancé died in New York City during the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001. The president knows tragedy firsthand, and tasks Reece with a secret mission during the early chapters of “The Devil’s Hand” that are designed to avenge his fiancé.

This novel was written in anticipation of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, so the events of that fateful day in 2001 tint the undertones of the plot in this novel.

Still reeling from the events in “Savage Son” (read my review), Reece wants to find the sniper (Nizzar Kattan) who killed Senior Chief Freddy Strain (who aided Reece in “Savage Son”).

Reece is also trying to figure out how his relationship with journalist Katie Buranek will mesh with his life operating in the shadows (there is no shortage of evildoers who want Reece dead).

The CEO of a shady private security contracting company (Masada Security Solutions) also figures into things, along with an irascible senator named Thwaite (who has an axe to grind with the president).

All of these threads mix together to form the basis of the narrative in “The Devil’s Hand.” It is a taut and detailed thriller that feels like it could be pulled from today’s headlines.

A considerable amount of Carr’s exposition in the first part of the novel focuses on various antagonists maneuvering behind the scenes. Each of those characters serves as a vessel for Carr to explore a number of historical events that laid the foundation for the War on Terror.

Many of those sequences are reminiscent of author Tom Clancy’s 1996 novel “Executive Orders.” In fact, the notion of a viral threat to the United States is something explored with similar aplomb in “The Devil’s Hand.”

And, in Clancy fashion, Carr provides copious amounts of research as he methodically lays the framework that guides the overall story.

So be patient. I promise you that the payoff in the second and third parts of “The Devil’s Hand” makes the build up worth it.

“The Devil’s Hand” was published in 2021 — a time that saw the world still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Carr states that he was “well into the research for this novel before the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the world.” The author integrates the events of 2020 and 2021 into this novel.

There was some debate in 2020 regarding whether thriller writers should infuse the pandemic into their novels. Some suggested that it might unnecessarily “date” novels. That said, I am glad Carr decided to tackle this topic.

Questions about the power of social media — as it regards the stability of society — also comes into play as events unfold in “The Devil’s Hand”:

“Theories without a foundation in facts or basis in reality could take flight and go viral. No barriers to entry. No editors. No fact checking, or if there was, it couldn’t be trusted; ‘fact checkers’ had biases and agendas, too, after all. The loudest voices dominated the chaos that was social media hysteria, and all of it contributed to the chaos. Suppression and censorship only fueled the flames.”

At the novel’s core is the notion that our enemies have learned things about us the past 20 years — things that potentially put the free world in peril.

Once again, Carr’s love of Toyota Land Cruisers is on display. The FJ62 featured in “Savage Son” figures prominently into “The Devil’s Hand.” Carr mentions ICON’s restoration of the Land Cruiser (a job Carr actually had done to his vehicle in real life), along with a few upgrades.

Carr is a well-read author. He infuses various works of fiction and non-fiction into his novels. Two books in particular play into the events of “The Devil’s Own”: T.E. Lawrence’s “Revolt in the Desert” and Peter Hopkirk’s “The Great Game.”

I also enjoyed how Carr got a mention of thriller writer Brad Thor in there, as well as a nod to Richard Marcinko’s novel “Red Cell.”

Even though “The Devil’s Hand” might slide on the more “wonky” side of the geopolitical thriller scale (especially in the first half), you can rest assured that there are still plenty of the visceral, action-packed moments Carr’s loyal fans have come to love — I promise you, the character does all sorts of creative things with his Winkler RnD axe!

Jack Carr once again places himself at the forefront of today’s thriller writers. “The Devil’s Hand” proves that Carr can traverse today’s geopolitical sphere with the best of them!

If you’d like to learn more about Jack Carr and his James Reece thrillers, visit his website at officialjackcarr.com.

NOTE: I should also mention that Carr’s first thriller “The Terminal List” is the basis of an Amazon Prime television series starring Chris Pratt (read my review). It was recently announced that a prequel series titled “The Terminal List: Dark Wolf” (starring Pratt and Taylor Kitsch) is currently in production.