May 5, 2026
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.