The Intruders [Mass Market Paperback]

Stephen Coonts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1995

1973. The skies over Vietnam have finally gone silent. America has pulled out, the war is over. But for Lieutenant Jake Grafton, USN, fresh from two combat cruises and a harrowing shoot-down over Laos, the personal battle is just beginning.... His country has not welcomed him home with open arms, but with closed minds and closed fists. When his girlfriend's father called him a murderer, Jake walked away. But when a stranger in a bar challenged his honor, the man was not so lucky - the guy landed in the hospital. Jake landed in jail. And Grafton's shore-duty commander, who bailed him out, has devised the perfect punishment for his ace flight instructor: an eight-month cruise on the aircraft carrier Columbia teaching jarheads - Marines - the nuances of carrier aviation. Flying missions over Vietnam was a living hell; now, as a Navy man working side by side with Marines who have no carrier aviation experience, Grafton's about to discover another world of fresh hell. The Marines may be made of tempered steel and brass balls, but taking off and landing from a slippery flight deck, on a choppy sea in a pitch-black night, there is no margin for error - or for animosity. And men like Marine Captain Flap Le Beau, his bombardier and navigator, have a real gift for pushing Jake's buttons. But he's going to have to learn to live with him...or die trying. They belong to the same society of warriors, they fought in the same war, they drink the same whiskey to toast fallen comrades. Now they must fly together in the same cockpit, must lock into each other and into their million-dollar machine, and make the split-second decisions which will insure that, tonight, their fellow pilots won't raise a glassto them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A sequel to Coonts's Flight of the Intruder, this novel puts fighter-pilot Jack Grafton on board an aircraft carrier, piloted by novices.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Coonts's latest technothriller stars Jake Grafton, hero of the best-selling Flight of the Intruder (Naval Inst. Pr., 1986).
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (June 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671870610
• ISBN-13: 978-0671870614
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,255,139 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

75 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A revisit with Jake Grafton in his younger years, June 11, 2005

By 

Rennie Petersen (Copenhagen, Denmark) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Intruders (Mass Market Paperback)

"The Intruders" is one of the 10 books in Stephen Coonts' very good series of thrillers about Jake Grafton of the U.S. Navy.

Exactly where "The Intruders" fits into the Jake Grafton series depends on how you look at it. Judged by the year when the story takes place, "The Intruders" is book number two, following "Flight of the Intruder", Stephen Coonts' first book.

But Stephen Coonts did not write this book immediately following "Flight of the Intruder", published in 1986. Instead, "The Intruders" was published in 1994 following the publishing of four other Jake Grafton books: "Final Flight" (1988), "The Minotaur" (1989), "Under Siege" (1990) and "The Red Horseman" (1993).

"Flight of the Intruder" was set in 1972 during the last part of the Vietnam War, while "The Intruders" is set in 1973, shortly after the end of the Vietnam War. (All of the remaining Jake Grafton books are set in contemporary time, i.e., around the time when they were published.)

So what we have here is a young Jake Grafton who has done his stint in the Vietnam War and is still in the U.S. Navy. He's very unsure about what he should do with his life. He's courting Callie McKenzie (mostly by writing letters to her), but fears that he will not win her hand. He feels that he is not in control of his life, that the Navy is making all the decisions for him.

Unlike all of the other Jake Grafton books (except to some extent "Flight of the Intruder") this book does not have any real story. A lot of things happen, but they are isolated episodes spanning an eight-month period, not a single continuous plot.

Actually, the main story in this book is simply the story of Jake Grafton finding himself and making decisions about his life. Plus the story about his relationship with Callie, with its ups and downs.

One of the things I liked best about "The Intruders" were the many descriptions of how naval aviation works. Flying high-performance planes from the deck of an aircraft carrier is a very exciting and dangerous endeavor, and Stephen Coonts describes it all in detail. The only slightly negative point is that these descriptions are somewhat dated now, since the aircraft have changed since 1973, and presumably the procedures too, to some extent.

Stephen Coonts writes with wit and intelligence, and some parts of the book, where Jake and his buddies talk about life and death, are quite philosophical. There are also touching passages about what love really is, and interesting insights into the concept of leadership.

Highly recommended. The lack of the fifth star is due to the silly adventure in the last five chapters, presumably added because the author or the editor or the publisher didn't think the rest of the book was exciting enough to be a Jake Grafton story.

Rennie Petersen

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great flying Scenes, but no story, December 21, 1999

By 

A. Jackson (East Coast USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Intruders (Mass Market Paperback)

If you are into NavAir, read this book. Carrier AirOps are described in detail. I am a pilot, so I loved those parts of the book. That's why I gave it 3 stars

As a Story, I found this book lacking. I get the feeling that Mr. Coonts wrote some high detailed, fast paced, adrenilin pumping flying scenes and then said, "I need a story to put them in."

The climax of the story came out of left field and left me Asking, "How did we get here?"

Read it for the NavAir Blue Water Ops. Just don't expect much of a story. If it was a video, I'd buy a copy, but I'd be doing a lot of fast forwarding

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 5 star script ready for the movies!!! Exciting !!!, January 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Intruders (Mass Market Paperback)

In this book Coonts concentrates on action on an aircraft carrier with plenty of naval aviation action. Naval Air being the long arm of American Foreign Policy is depicted here in action. Jake Grafton the main character is interesting and at times reflects upon himself to see whether or not to get out of the navy of not, marriage with his sweetheart Callie is on his mind. Flap Le beau his Bombardier/Nav. puts a bit of fun and flare into the story. Although I'm not a pilot but an enthusiast, Coonts puts a lot of emphasis on what the pilots are thinking of while in the cockpit, no matter at night or during the day, as a reader you get to feel what the pilot and his Navigator are really feeling at the time.

THIS STORY WOULD MAKE A GREAT MOVIE about the life for an aviator living on an aircraft carrier, we have enough movies about the grunts on the ground,here is a chance to make a movie about aviators on aircraft carriers as they are America's long arm of Foreign Policy.