I'm Shane Whaley — a self-confessed "guile over guns" spy fiction reader who has always preferred le Carré's slow burn spy novels to military firefights.
So what happens when a Le Carré fan picks up Jack Carr's Cry Havoc, a 550-page Vietnam War action thriller written by a former Navy SEAL?
Welcome to the Spybrary Rodeo — the brand new Spybrary feature where I pick up a book outside my comfort zone, or by a new-to-me author, give it a fair crack, and tell you exactly how many pages I stayed on for.
Sometimes I bail early.
Sometimes I go all the way to the final page.
Today's book is Cry Havoc by Jack Carr. 550 pages. Lots of guns. Not my usual territory. Did I finish it? Keep listening to find out.
In this episode:
What the Spybrary Rodeo is and how it works
The secret MACV-SOG unit running deniable missions in Vietnam in 1968
Why Cry Havoc is NOT your typical action thriller
The speech that stopped me cold
The spy fiction ingredients hidden inside this action thriller — GRU, moles, honey traps and the USS Pueblo The brilliant le Carré and Fleming passage that tells you everything about Jack Carr as a writer
The literary rabbit hole that sent me straight to Jean Lartéguy's The Centurions
My honest verdict
Books mentioned: Cry Havoc — Jack Carr https://geni.us/UMYz The Quiet American — Graham Greene The Tears of Autumn — Charles McCarry The Honourable Schoolboy — John le Carré The Centurions — Jean Lartéguy - https://geni.us/pzrFcJ
Suggest my next Rodeo read: 👉 Join the Spybrary community: https://www.spybrary.com/community 👉 Find me on X: @Spybrary - https://x.com/spybrary 👉 Full show notes: https://www.spybrary.com/298
If you're a spy fiction fan who has been avoiding Jack Carr because you thought he was too kinetic — start here. This is the episode that might just change your mind. Don't forget to subscribe for more Spybrary Rodeo episodes, Dead Drop Five conversations, and the best spy fiction and espionage history content on the internet.