Boom! This is Books & Biceps #372!

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If you’re a new subscriber you’ll love this profile that the New Yorker ran on us.

CRY HAVOC: A Tom Reece Thriller by Jack Carr

Jack Carr is a first ballot Books & Biceps Hall of Famer. On both fronts, books and biceps, his resume is unassailable: he spent twenty years as a member of the Navy SEAL Teams and he’s written nine (soon to be ten) New York Times bestselling books, most in the Terminal List series, which spawned the awesome TV series The Terminal List and The Terminal List: Dark Wolf currently on Prime (great show).

I’ve read and recommended several of Carr’s books, most recently Savage Son in Issue 347. I’m drawn to Carr’s writing for a bunch of reasons and the biggest may be that he truly, deeply loves the craft of writing and it shows. His biggest thriller influence is the same as mine, the OG master himself, David Morrell, who gave us the epic First Blood (Issue 303), and the amazing Brotherhood of the Rose series.

If you follow Carr on social media (I recommend that you do) you also know that he’s a huge fan of action movies and TV shows from the 80s and 90s. Magnum PI. Miami Vice. The Delta Force. Lethal Weapon. All the movies you and I grew up on as well.

Of course, none of this would matter if Carr was a crappy writer haha, but thankfully, he’s an exceptional storyteller and where I believe he excels is in his research, the details he infuses into his characters, the descriptions of the settings and scenarios and in his character creation. His main character, James Reece, is already in the pantheon of all-time fiction characters like my personal favorite, Spenser, along with Jack Reacher, Jack Ryan and heroes/anti-heroes of that caliber.

His newest book, which comes out next week, CRY HAVOC, follows James Reece’s father, Tom, on his exploits in the Vietnam War. The storytelling, the pace and the action are terrific, but as someone who was born five years after the Vietnam War ended, I found the book to be an entertaining and enlightening historically.

Carr puts you right there, in the mud, into Saigon, in the middle of the Tet Offensive. It’s a brilliant blend of fiction and non-fiction and after a few exchanges on X when I started reading an advanced copy, Carr was down to do one of our exclusive, behind-the-book B&B interviews. This is one of our best and I’m including the entire thing below. Read the interview and buy the book ASAP:

ONE

FINKEL: I know you’re a huge fan of David Morrell’s work, especially First Blood, which is one of my favorite books of all time as well. With this book set in the Vietnam War, maybe my brain was drawn to Rambo comparisons, but in the prologue of Cry Havoc you give a description of Tom Reece on the jungle floor, sweating “with his ears, nose, eyes and mouth under attack by malaria-ridden mosquitos.”

You go on to describe the miserable, swampy, humid conditions and it reminded me of Morrell’s scene in First Blood where Rambo works his way through mountains of bat guano and bugs in the old mine shaft. When you’re putting your main character in a position like that, are you jotting down a list of things he’s likely experiencing ahead of time and writing to that? Or do you just put yourself into the scene and work through what’s happening to put the reader there?

CARR: For this prologue in particular I wanted to try and capture what it might have felt like to be hiding on the jungle floor with a numerically superior armed force about to find you. I wanted to put the reader in the boots of a MACV-SOG operator across the fence in Laos and also wanted to honor the men who had been in that position.

I read every book and article on MACV-SOG I could find and interviewed many MACV-SOG veterans on my Danger Close Podcast. I didn’t just want to describe actions, I wanted to induce feelings in the reader / listener. I wanted them to feel the sweat, the heat, the bugs, the tension. Through that research and personal experience in jungles I put myself in Tom Reece’s shoes and described it on the page to transport a reader back to 1968, the bloodiest year of the conflict in Southeast Asia.

TWO

If I had to rank all the things I might be asking you about this book before I cracked it open, I’m talking about every possible topic and subject no matter how random, I think I’d have caviar at the very bottom of that list haha. And yet, here we are because one of your characters has a thing for caviar, specifically, Kladovo caviar, that helps tell his backstory really well, but also gives readers a ton of interesting info about caviar itself and how it was used in war.

What comes first here for you as an author? Did you save this info about Klodovo caviar from whenever you first read about it in research or in a book? Or did you start writing Lavrinenko and do some research about what a fascinating guy like him might eat and you came across caviar? So curious how you slot these things in.

This one started as a way to develop the character and differentiate him from his deputy, someone with whom he was going to share a number of scenes / chapters. I gave those two characters different physical characteristics and different clothing but I felt like I needed something more so I thought I should give Lavrinenko something to “do” while he was talking and thinking in his office, so I gave him caviar.

I had done some caviar research for my fourth novel, The Devil’s Hand, so I had a starting point. Then I did a deep dive into caviar from the perspective of 1968 when the story takes place and found out so much more that worked into that character's backstory perfectly. I think I had one additional caviar paragraph that I edited out because I thought I might have gone a bit overboard on the caviar from my enjoyment of the research.

THREE

I’m a sucker for great side conversations in novels that talk about real people and work the character’s lives into the lives of an icon. They do such a good job of placing characters into a true historical time and place and your conversation with Tom, Quinn and Larry Martin about surfing and Rick Stoner was great. Even the aside about grilling a sea snake was cool.

Are you writing these scenes with stuff that you’re interested in or do you come up with the environment first, like the China Beach Surf Shop, and then figure that Larry is the kind of guy who’d work there and this is who he might know?

I knew I wanted an R&R scene to help capture the insanity of Vietnam in 1968 that would also help develop the characters through conversation with one another and knew that R&R section was going to incorporate China Beach.

From there I dove into the research not just on China Beach but on surfboard shaping of the 1960s. Larry is a real person who worked on China Beach and I am dear friends with Rick Stoner’s son, Mike. The sea snake story is real as well. I wanted to blend fact with a fictional narrative to set the scene. This book became more of a work of historical fiction the deeper I got into the research.

FOUR

Here’s some real inside baseball author talk. I want to ask you about the device of using italics to signify a character’s inner thoughts. I use them in my books and think they can be incredibly effective when used smartly and sparingly.

I thought your use of them in the scene when the convoy was ambushed leaving [Spoiler Town] was perfect. I named the town Spoiler Town so we don’t ruin it for readers, but they were a great way to ground the scene without getting in the way as the writer. Short, brief thoughts amidst the action. Even short thoughts like “get control of the gun” let you jumpstart into more action without too much exposition. I always start with more in an early draft and then pare way down. What are your thoughts on them? How do you use them for maximum impact?

They seem to come about naturally. I like to use them to give the reader an insight into the character’s mind.

Oftentimes I also use them to communicate a lesson or memory of mine from Iraq or Afghanistan on leadership, resiliency, or tactics that I want to attribute to my protagonist.

FIVE

Okay, when I read an action thriller like CRY HAVOC I’m always thinking of the movie in my mind. I think of the awesome scenes that would be in the trailer, the quotes and the memorable lines. One of my favorite lines in this book, without giving anything away, is this: “Give me an IV, wrap these ribs, and I’ll be good to go.”

Readers will find out who said this and why when they get the book, but from following you on social media and listening to your podcast, I have a feeling you take great pride in coming up with the money shot quote at the money shot moment in the book. This exchange was one of them, right?

It’s the one that would be delivered in an understated bad ass tone in the film by our hero, with a pause, then music, then the key planning scene unfolds. Am I right? How much do you love writing these lines?

Ha! Love it! I do love these lines! I am a child of the 80s so a cool line like that hits just right. They are so fun to write. With every book I have lines that stand out and with every book there are sections where I get emotional which I think is a good sign.

Thanks so much, Jack! Good luck with the book!

FACT: I don’t do any specific ab training. Between swimming 3 or 4 days a week, lifting full body twice a week, Knees Over Toes twice a week, playing hoops, running, sprints and more, I decided long ago that I didn’t really need specific core work training.

Plus, it became conventional wisdom that stuff like crunches and sit-ups were dumb. If you lifted heavy with deadlifts and squats and did pull-ups and push-ups your core got plenty of work. No need to add the old school fifteen minute ab circuit to end your workout.

But, as Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast, my friends!”

My old Muscle & Fitness colleague, Dr. Jim Stoppani, shares a new study that says crunches may, shockingly, be worth doing to get that six-pack you’ve always wanted.

I ignore 99% of these kinds of headlines, but not from Doc. He knows his stuff:

It took a while for it to become official, BUT, last week I found out that my 100 Meter Butterfly Time from late last year qualified me for the Official USA Masters Top 10 List for 2024, meaning I had a Top 10 fastest 100 fly time for dudes between 45-49 in the whole United States.

This was the race that did it at the Swimming Hall of Fame meet in Ft. Lauderdale (shout out to my daughter for the awesome photo). I have a big meet coming up in early November. Hoping to go faster and add a Top Ten in the 50 Fly as well:

And speaking of Finkel Family Feats, I’m super proud of my son who earned his red belt in Taekwondo on Wednesday night. He’s been on this martial arts journey for nearly four years and it took him over nine months to raise the red belt. He practiced so much and 100% earned this. Provisional black belt is up next:

If you’re a guy over 40 and you’ve been looking for a new digital magazine that’s written for midlife men, by midlife men, on the topics that actually matter to us: family, fitness, fashion, finance, food & fun, then join 25K of us at Midlife Male.

I write a column every Tuesday called The Manologue. This week I tackled a topic I never expected to write about: Old Dude Forgiveness. Trust me. This one will leave you thinking and you’ll be sharing this with lots of people you know:

I’m starting to jot down ideas and concepts for a book trailer for my thriller coming out next year, Bear Brawl, and I had to take a minute to appreciate how incredible the trailer for my Macho Man biography was last year. Nailed it start to finish.

The book is still selling so well and I get messages weekly from Macho Man fans telling me how much they love it. If you somehow missed the trailer, or want to watch it for the 2nd, 10th or 35th time, here you go:

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