“AUTHORITATIVE AND ACUTELY READABLE… [Warrick’s] new book functions as a pocket history of terrorism’s early modern period, and it details how Carlos’s exploits helped provide the template for later bad actors such as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.”
—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“ENGROSSING…recounts the life of a flamboyant Marxist whose exploits riveted and terrified.”
—Wall Street Journal

“ASTONISHING. Joby Warrick has completely fleshed out this mysterious and lethal man, driven as much by vanity as any of the various causes he embraced, and succeeds like no one before in mapping the global underworld.”
—Mark Bowden, bestselling author of Black Hawk Down and Guests of the Ayatollah

“JOBY WARRICK HAS DONE IT AGAIN. He taps his amazing intelligence sources to narrate the intimate details of Carlos's life as a killer, sexual predator, and diabolically clever ‘founding father’ of modern terrorism. When he finally tracks Carlos down in a Paris prison, the reader feels a sigh of relief that he's behind bars!” 
—David Ignatius, columnist at The Washington Post and author of Phantom Orbit
“CAN’T-PUT-IT-DOWN THRILLER, ABSORBING PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY, METICULOUS DETECTIVE STORY, ILLUMINATING SAGA—Joby Warrick's brilliant Jackal does it all. Its final, haunting scene is one you’ll never forget.”
—David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of When Pride Still Mattered and Path Lit by Lightning
“THOROUGHLY IMMERSIVE—a page turner with just the right amount of historical context. As someone who was on the periphery of hunting Carlos, I can assure readers that there’s nary a false note. For those who wonder why terrorism ultimately fails, this is a must read.”
—Robert Baer, former CIA case officer and bestselling author of See No Evil and The Devil We Know

“PROPULSIVE. The biography of a ‘criminal narcissist’ who made terrorism into a lethal art while also living the life of a louche playboy, gallivanting around the globe. A rattling good yarn and a sobering one.”
—Peter Bergen, bestselling author of Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad

"EXTRAORDINARY. In a globe-spanning quest, Warrick appears to have tracked down nearly everyone involved in the hunt for the notorious Carlos. Fans of spy-thrillers will be in absolute heaven knowing this is all true."
—Scott Anderson, bestselling author of Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East

“PULSATING AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING, The Jackal is a meticulously reported page-turner from one of our finest chroniclers of terrorists and their pursuers.”
—Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Ghost Wars, Directorate S, and The Achilles Trap

 See also:

 The Jackal as reviewed by Dwight Garner for New York Times – August 10, 2026

Carlos arrives at the Paris courthouse for his appeal against French anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere. Carlos claims Bruguiere "violated the secrecy of the case" when he allegedly spoke to French journalist Philippe Berti of the Figaro-Magazine about the probe he conducted in Romania in 1998, concerning a 1982 bomb attack rue Marbeouf in Paris. He was seeking one symbolic franc (15 US cents) in damages.JACK GUEZ/AFP (2011)

 About the book: 
The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World's First Super-Terrorist

by Joby Worrick 

Scribner - 384 pages $20.99 (Kindle)

Publication Date: August 18, 2026 

About the Author: Joby Worrick
Joby Warrick is a best-selling author and a national security reporter for The Washington Post. A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, he served for 19 years with the Post’s national and investigative staffs, focusing primarily on intelligence, diplomacy and security in the Middle East and South Asia. His first book, “The Triple Agent” (Doubleday, 2011), is the best-selling true story of an al-Qaeda spy who led the CIA into a deadly trap at Khost, Afghanistan, in the agency’s bloodiest day in a quarter-century. Warrick’s second book, “Black Flags” (Knopf-Doubleday, September 2015), is a narrative account of the personalities and events that gave rise to the Islamic State, or ISIS. It was listed as one of the best books of 2015 by the New York Times, The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle and numerous other publications. The book was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction in April 2016.

 As an investigative reporter at The Post, Warrick led the newspaper’s coverage of WMD proliferation and weapons trafficking after 2001, and was among the first American journalists to question pre-war claims about Iraq’s nuclear program. Later, his articles about international proliferation threats earned him the Overseas Press Club of America’s Bob Considine Award in 2004 for best newspaper interpretation of international affairs.

 Before coming to The Post, Warrick was an enterprise reporter for The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., where he co-authored “Boss Hog,” a series of investigative stories that documented the political and environmental fallout caused by factory farming in the Southeast. The series won the 1996 “Gold Medal” Pulitzer Prize for public service and nine other national and regional awards, including citations by Investigative Reporters & Editors and the White House Correspondents’ Association.

 Warrick worked for five years as a reporter for United Press International, and at age 29 was appointed UPI bureau chief in Vienna, Austria. While in Europe he covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, the overthrow of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu and the collapse of other communist regimes in the former East Bloc. He also previously worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Delaware County (Pa.) Daily Times.

 Warrick graduated summa cum laude from Temple University in 1982 with a B.A. in journalism. A native of North Carolina, he lives in Centreville, Va., with his wife and two children.

Biography Credit: Chartwell Speakers