The Former Navy SEAL Who Keeps Churning Out Hit Books
Some writers sell fantasy, romance or mystery. Former Navy SEAL Jack Carr trades in his precise knowledge of guns and battlefield tactics. In Carr’s latest novel, “Only the Dead," battle-scarred James Reece opens a family trunk full of deadly weaponry.
He “reached inside and removed the 9mm Smith & Wesson M39 from the chest. Better known in the SEAL Teams as the Mk 22 ‘Hush Puppy,’ it had earned a legendary reputation in the jungles of Vietnam for silently eliminating sentries and guard dogs." Soon, Reece is grabbing a box of “9mm Super Vel subsonic ammunition." That ultrarealistic detail is Carr’s signature. It’s part of the formula propelling him to success in a competitive genre, military and political thrillers, where few newcomers break out.
Drawing on his experience, Carr spins tales about a SEAL who begins on a mission to avenge the deaths of his family and winds up unraveling terrorist plots and global conspiracies. Combined, his six books have sold about 3.3 million copies in all formats, according to publisher Simon & Schuster, with “Only the Dead" so far accounting for 300,000. His seventh, “Red Sky Mourning," is expected to publish next spring.
His cumulative sales put him in a league reached by less than 1% of all authors, according to an estimate from publishing executives. Carr’s last two novels each made its debut at No. 1 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller fiction list.
Tom Clancy was the father of military fiction, but he never served. Carr enlisted as a Navy SEAL in 1996 and saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan before leaving Naval Special Warfare in 2016. “I’m bringing the feeling and emotions of somebody who fought," Carr said in an interview.
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