Author and ex-Navy SEAL Jack Carr's latest thriller, THE DEVIL’S HAND, boasts something for everyone --- that is, if you love books filled with violence, war, gore and a thirst for revenge. But this authoritative and authentic-sounding novel is about much more than a taste for blood. It's also a history of America's quest for global dominance versus the Muslim world’s quest for the international triumph of Sharia law, the destruction of democracy everywhere, and the humiliation and ultimate defeat of America the Devil.

THE DEVIL’S HAND represents a rather strange combination of genres. It's partly historical fiction and partly a semi-alternative world narrative featuring the U.S. of the present day, with an entirely fictional president in 2021. The beginning of the story consists of a quick episode involving Muslim extremists in the process of preparing the infamous 9/11 attack on America. We then meet Alec Christensen, the man who will be president. He is dining with his father at a restaurant near the Twin Towers while his fiancée is in the target building. The young man sees the planes and the attack, and he tries bravely and desperately to save the love of his life, but his attempt is futile.

"...a scary, condemnatory sketch of human nature and our apparently unquenchable thirst for conflict and dominance. It's all rather brilliantly but depressingly and pessimistically presented."

However, Christensen is not the main character. That distinction belongs to James Reece, a former Navy SEAL, an ex-spy and a master of all things military, political and grossly violent. Reece, like Christensen (now the president), is out for revenge. While the president's targets are the 9/11 perpetrators, Reece wants to find and kill the traitor who was responsible for the murders of his wife, child and best friend. Aware of Reece's reputation, the president sets up an ultra-secret meeting with the warrior and sends him on a mission to rid the world of those killers. All of these conditions serve as the foundation for an intriguing and suspenseful plot, but in this long and very complicated novel, the two characters' searches for revenge are the side dish rather than the main course.

The primary plot involves a deadly conspiracy cooked up by Iranian political and underground figures, the purpose of which is quite simple: to demolish America. But their plan is fittingly complex as Iranian operatives have managed to steal a sample of a deadly Russian-developed virus, which is known by only a select few until the theft is accomplished. They plan to use the formula to destroy The Great Satan by manufacturing additional doses of the virus and having Iranian and Iranian-American extremists spray it into the air of a few select cities.

As Americans collapse and quickly become mortally ill, a mob rush to already-overburdened hospitals will quickly begin. The American government and scientific community will assume that the virus, like COVID-19, is spread by airborne droplets passed person-to-person. In order to contain it, the government will be forced to surround the infected areas to ensure that no one escapes and spreads it, and then they will be forced to bomb their own cities into oblivion. So the antagonists plan to force the U.S. into the tragic and ugly position of having to destroy thousands of its own citizens, and the collateral damage will be the inevitable spreading of distrust and violence.

Reece's mission now morphs from simply exacting revenge into a race to save tens of thousands of American lives. He must figure out the plot and prove that the virus is not spread through person-to-person contact. The twisty plot is brilliantly conceived and effectively executed. Every element is exquisitely described in excruciating and often painful detail: the weapons, the political organizations and machinations, the destructive plans, the mano-a-mano violence, the history of global conflicts, the flaws of government responses to crises, and the ugliness of wartime conflict.

Some disturbing plot, character and thematic issues arise (for some of us, anyway) that thread their way, at times openly and at other times subtly, throughout the entire novel. Violence and revenge are glorified; the book virtually begs the reader to enjoy cruelty, suffering, blood and gore. Islam --- and Muslims in general --- appear, without meaningful exception, to be rigid exponents of the necessary extermination of all "infidels." And even on the "good guys'" side, the primary characteristics of Americans and the American government specifically are viewed pretty ferociously. The government is corrupt, deceitful, and guilty of selfish and stupid motivations and offensively careless behaviors. Finally, the political and military effectiveness of a democratic state when pitted against authoritarian regimes is (perhaps all too accurately!) questioned.

The end result is a scary, condemnatory sketch of human nature and our apparently unquenchable thirst for conflict and dominance. It's all rather brilliantly but depressingly and pessimistically presented. Keeping all of those factors in mind, if you read the novel thoughtfully and carefully, you will come to your own conclusions about the validity of both its openly stated and implicitly suggested attitudes.