The Disciple (Tommy Carmellini Series) [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

Stephen Coonts (Author), Eric G. Dove (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 8, 2009 | Series: Tommy Carmellini Series

Iran is much closer to having operational nuclear weapons than the CIA believes, and Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has a plan. With twelve nuclear warheads mounted on twelve missiles, he will make Iran a martyr nation; then he will lead the world’s Muslims in a holy war against the nonbelievers. However, the Americans have a secret weapon in a group of Iranian dissidents, including a brother and sister determined to avenge the death of their beloved grandfather at the hands of the religious police. They are funneling information to Tommy Carmellini. They want to stop the attack before their leader launches a new world war. Will the U.S. government believe the information they are providing, and can the Americans prevent the Israelis from taking matters into their own hands, which could prove disastrous?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Last seen together in bestseller Coonts's The Assassin (2008), Tommy Carmellini, a CIA operative, and Jake Grafton, the new CIA head of Middle Eastern Operations, try to stop the Iranian president, madman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, from starting WWIII in this nail-biting near-future thriller. When they fail to do so, Tommy and Jake must attempt to knock out the conventional and nuclear missiles that Iran fires at targets throughout the Middle East. Coonts carefully builds his plot using a wide cast of characters, from insider Iranian spies to cutting-edge aircraft pilots and government officials both high and low. Hardly a page passes without nerve-stretching tension or flat-out action. One can only hope the U.S. president, the head of the CIA and the Israeli prime minister will have this book on their nightstands for easy reference in case fiction turns to reality, an all-too-real possibility as evidenced by recent headlines. 250,000 first printing. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“[A] nail-biting near-future thriller… Hardly a page passes without nerve-stretching tension or flat-out action. One can only hope the U.S. president, the head of the CIA and the Israeli prime minister will have this book on their nightstands for easy reference in case fiction turns to reality, an all-too-real possibility as evidenced by recent headlines.” —Publishers Weekly

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD; Abridged edition (December 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423334647
• ISBN-13: 978-1423334644
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,348,796 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen Coonts is the author of 14 New York Times bestsellers, the first of which was the classic flying tale, FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER.
Born in 1946, Stephen Paul Coonts grew up in Buckhannon, West Virginia, a coal-mining town of 6,000 population on the western slope of the Appalachian mountains. He majored in political science at West Virginia University, graduating in 1968 with an A.B. degree. Upon graduation he was commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Navy and began flight training in Pensacola, Florida.
He received his Navy wings in August, 1969. After completion of fleet replacement training in the A-6 Intruder aircraft, Mr. Coonts reported to Attack Squadron 196 at NAS Whidbey Island, Washington. He made two combat cruises aboard USS Enterprise during the final years of the Vietnam War as a member of this squadron. After the war he served as a flight instructor on A-6 aircraft for two years, then did a tour as an assistant catapult and arresting gear officer aboard USS Nimitz. He left active duty in 1977 and moved to Colorado. After short stints as a taxi driver and police officer, he entered the University of Colorado School of Law in the fall of 1977.
Mr. Coonts received his law degree in December, 1979, and moved to West Virginia to practice. He returned to Colorado in 1981 as a staff attorney specializing in oil and gas law for a large independent oil company.
His first novel, FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER, published in September 1986 by the Naval Institute Press, spent 28 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists in hardcover. A motion picture based on this novel, with the same title, was released nationwide in January 1991.
The success of his first novel allowed Mr. Coonts to devote himself full time to writing; he has been at it ever since. He and his wife, Deborah, enjoy flying and try to do as much of it as possible.
Mr. Coonts' books have been widely translated and republished in the British Commonwealth, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Russia, China, Japan, Czechoslovakia, Serbia, Latvia, and Israel.
Mr. Coonts was a trustee of West Virginia Wesleyan College from 1990-1998. He was inducted into the West Virginia University Academy of Distinguished Alumni in 1992. The U.S. Naval Institute honored him with its Author of the Year Award for the year 1986 for his novel, FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER. Mr. Coonts and his wife, Deborah, reside in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Winner for Fans of Military and Espionage Novels Alike, December 14, 2009

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Disciple (Hardcover)

Stephen Coonts seems to have a crystal ball on his desk that provides him with the material for whatever subject he chooses to visit in his most recent novel. Of course, Coonts is not a fortune teller; he is simply possessed of the ability to believe that which he sees in front of him, analyze it and extrapolate. Indeed, it is in much the same manner that his long-running Jake Grafton character functions. Call it an informed guess, but the result is edge-of-the-seat, page-turning reality presented as fiction.

THE DISCIPLE, Coonts's latest novel, brings together Grafton and his protégé, Tommy Carmellini, once again for an excursion into the heart of the darkness of the Middle East. Carmellini, a retired jewel thief turned reluctant CIA operative, has a skill set that serves him well in whatever situation Grafton throws him into, which has never been truer than in THE DISCIPLE. Beginning just after the bombing of a Syrian nuclear reactor (which was never acknowledged as having existed to begin with), Grafton, a former Navy admiral now with the CIA, finds himself facing the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran. Despite the denials of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it is obvious that the Iranian nuclear weapons program exists; the question is what will be done with it.

Grafton inserts Carmellini into Tehran for some clandestine boots-on-ground intelligence, and watching the two men work from opposite ends of a very long, sharp and dangerous stick is worth the price of admission to THE DISCIPLE all by itself. Carmellini, masquerading as a passport approval clerk at a foreign embassy, slowly but surely insinuates himself into the Iranian political resistance movement, a nerve-wracking proposition in and of itself given the violently repressive attitude of the government. It is through his association with the resistance movement that Carmellini is able to gain information about Iran's ultimate plan for its nuclear weapons and to transfer the intelligence to Grafton.

What they ultimately discover is that Ahmadinejad plans to martyr Iran and then lead the fundamentalist Muslim world into the ultimate holy war against Israel and the United States. The President, notwithstanding the evidence in front of him, refuses proactive action against Iran, leaving it to Grafton and Carmellini to work within the parameters that are outlined for them. The result is heart-stopping: Iran begins a countdown to Armageddon, while the United States is forced to play catch-up from a reactive position as the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

THE DISCIPLE is stuffed to bursting with Coonts's trademark technology updates, consisting of a cornucopia of items that provide Exhibits A through Z to the proposition that peace is ultimately won through superior firepower. Coonts does not get bogged down in a technical description of the nuts and bolts of which does what and to whom, instead focusing very closely and graphically on cause and effect. He also takes pains, through character development, to examine the social and religious complexities that exist within Iran, which is slowly tearing itself apart from within. An exciting work on a number of levels, THE DISCIPLE will be a winner for fans of military and espionage novels alike.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars tense thriller, December 9, 2009

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Disciple (Hardcover)

CIA Middle Eastern Operations chief Jake Grafton assigns his top operative Tommy Carmellini to work inside Iran as there is fear that maniacal fundamentalist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is close to having his finger on a nuclear trigger. The Iranian leader wants a holy war to the death with the west and he believes his side will win.

As Tommy watches and gathers information, he has Iranians supporting him; many fear Ahmadinejad's legacy will be a stone age Iran. While Israel considers bombing Iran's nuclear sites as it did Syria, Tommy's efforts and that of his associates and his boss fail to prevent the madman from firing missiles throughout the Middle East under the guise of martyrdom. Tommy and Jake to try to deflect his assault of missiles, including some nuclear, that Iran has fired in order to stop WW III from occurring.

This is a tense thriller that places the stars of in what feels like a potentially realistic extrapolation of headline news with recent revelations re Iranian hidden nuclear developments. The story line is fast-paced starting with the opening sequence of the Israeli destruction of the Syrian nuclear plant as told to readers by a Russian adviser killed at the site and never slows down. Though obviously biased as the American heroes are hawk patriots (not the chicken hawk couch potato variety of send someone else); the action enables the reader to know who are allies and enemies as Stephen Coonts provides a super tale of vaporization while exposing Ahmadinejad's fanatical background that goes back to even before the fall of the Shah.

Harriet Klausner

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frighteningly real, December 17, 2009

By 

Jerry Alan (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Disciple (Hardcover)

I always relish the chance to devour one of Stephen Coonts books, and this is one of his best yet. Coonts had me from the first page. I was up until 3:00 AM finishing it.

The premise is so frighteningly real that I understand the publisher moved the publication date up by six months. The situation with Iran's nuclear program is so volatile that real events could overtake fiction any day now.

Coonts' masterfully written novel provides the most intelligent and thoughtful analysis of just how this nuclear nightmare could actually play out. It also provides insight into the often under-reported youthful dissident movement in Iran, and the brutality the Mullah's are prepared to employ to keep them in check.

I have no doubt they are reading THE DISCIPLE in Israel, as well as at the State Department and the Pentagon. I just hope we have a real Tommy Carmellini out there somewhere.