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Today is the publication day for Jack Carr's latest thriller - CRY HAVOC. 

We head straight into Saigon, 1968—where every decision is made in the dark, alliances shift by the hour, and the only truth is what a character can see, feel, and survive. Jack walks us through the making of Cry Havoc, his ninth book, and why he delayed the release to honor the era’s constraints rather than bend them to modern expectations. We now enter the world of Tom Reece, the father of James Reece, the focus of Jack Carr's "The Terminal List" series.
 
We unpack the creative rule that shaped the book: no borrowing future knowledge to explain past events. That choice reshaped the plot, the pace, and even the language of the story. From MACV-SOG’s footprint and GRU maneuvers to a French doctor’s fragile neutrality and a Saigon business network tangled in war, the novel builds suspense through lived detail instead of digital shortcuts. Hear how influences like Graham Greene’s The Quiet American and Charles McCarry’s The Tears of Autumn guided tone without caging the story, and why this return to Vietnam-era espionage feels urgent today. We also follow the Reece and Hastings family lines, a long-arc investment that turns legacy into motive and keeps the world rich with future possibilities.
 
Jack shares how pandemic-era support for independent bookstores turned signed bookplates into a “shot-through” edition—title pages stacked tight and perforated with a CAR-15, echoing the rifles carried by MACV-SOG teams. It’s a hands-on tribute to readers, shops, and the physicality of story. 

We close with the real engine behind the series’ growth: grassroots readers who recommended the work to friends and kept the conversation alive long before spotlights and studios arrived. 

Share this podcast with a reader who loves historical & military espionage, and leave a review to help others find the show. 

Your word of mouth moves the mission.

To learn more about Jack Carr and his work, visit:
www.officialjackcarr.com

To learn more about the host, George Blitch, visit:
www.SonofaBlitch.com

JACK CARR - CRY HAVOC

1968. A time of division. A time of civil unrest. A time of war.

Just before the Tet Offensive, before President Johnson announces he will not run for reelection, before the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, as riots and protests rage across the nation, a spy ship is captured by communist forces off the coast of North Korea.

The crew thought they had destroyed everything of intelligence value. They were wrong.

As a KGB “illegal” elicits information from a high-ranking NSA official, and teams of special operators infiltrating into Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam disappear without a trace, an ambitious Soviet advisor launches an ingenious plan that could forever alter the world balance of power.

Tom Reece, a SEAL operator attached to the highly classified and shadowy MACV-SOG is about to be thrust into a bloody battle to discover the truth.

From the Kremlin to the White House, from the streets of Saigon to the rugged A Shau Valley, along the paths of Ho Chi Minh Trail and into the secret war in Laos, Navy SEAL Tom Reece has an official mission assigned by Military Assistance Command, Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group, but it’s his unofficial mission that might get him killed.

(This is episode is a condensed conversation from Ep. 108, to focus on the 9th book by Jack Carr, CRY HAVOC)