The Minotaur: A Jake Grafton Novel (The Jake Grafton Series) [Kindle Edition]

Stephen Coonts (Author)

Book Description

The thriller from New York Times bestselling author Stephen Coonts—now available as an ebook

At the height of the Cold War, Captain Jake Grafton becomes entangled in the hunt for a spy selling high-tech military secrets to the Soviet Union

 

Naval pilot Jake Grafton flies fighter jets with ice water in his veins. But when he’s assigned a desk job in the Pentagon as the head of a top-secret stealth bomber program, his nerve is tested as never before. Colleagues start dying mysteriously, test flights are sabotaged, and the program is threatened at every level. If Grafton can’t infiltrate a web of espionage and counter-espionage centered round the deadly traitor, code-named the Minotaur, he stands to lose much more than just his career.

 

The Minotaur is an exhilarating thriller and fascinating procedural, revealing the complexities of military technology R&D. 

 

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Stephen Coonts, including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Coonts's third novel is a clever and unlikely paradox--a techno-thriller with a low-tech bias, at its best when indicting "techno-junk." Here he brings back Navy Captain Jake Grafton from what seemed certain death in Final Flight to take charge of developing a new tactical aircraft, the Minotaur, that depends on a variant of Stealth technology. Not only must Grafton tackle a prevailing mind-set equating elaborate gadgetry with combat performance, he must also cope with an information leak at the highest levels of the Defense Department labyrinth. Coonts is most compelling when he focuses on the politics of design and procurement; his comparisons of Navy and Air Force procedures are admirably sharp-edged. The parallel plot involving the Minotaur's exposure is also effective despite some sacrifice of clarity for suspense. Since neither the living room nor the bedroom is his metier, however, domestic descriptions slow the narrative. But Coonts retains the ability to write standout techno-thrillers, making this a winter-season favorite in its category. First serial to Playboy; BOMC selection; author tour.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Stephen Coonts, like Jake Grafton, just keeps getting better.” —Tom Clancy

 

“Wildly inventive . . . [Coonts] always seems to be a few months in front of the headlines and never gets a detail wrong.”  —Ocala Star-Banner

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 1093 KB
• Print Length: 450 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0440207428
• Publisher: Open Road Media (December 28, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004GTLS3O
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,231 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #99 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Technothrillers

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Intruder goes to the Beltway March 20, 2001

By Rottenberg's rotten book review

Format:Mass Market Paperback

We thought Captain Jake Grafton died at the end of "Final Flight" when he deliberately flew his F-14 into a cargo plane carrying stolen nukes. We were wrong - as the first few pages of "Minotaur" make clear. The Minotaur is the codename for a Russian spy blamed for leaking sensitive military secrets to the Russians. Many think the spy a myth, but Jake Grafton - now permanently grounded and assigned a desk in the Pentagon - has to consider the mole real enough. Given control over the Navy's new stealth bomber program, Grafton confronts mysterious accidents and the mysterious death of his predecessor. He must also confront the program's more mundane obstacles - like the fact that it's impossible to design a truly effective stealth plane, and that the most promising design will be edged by the more politically attractive one. While most writers would wax eloquently on the virtues of their techno toys, Coonts looks at the advanced technology aircraft in his book dispassionately. Stealth aircraft, Coonts warns us, are underarmed, not very maneuverable, and very short-ranged. The USAF's stealth fighter, for its whiz-bangs, is essentially a Navy A-7 that (for the moment) can evade any radar in the world and drop a total of two bombs, both being the sort of high-tech toys that never work. (This book came out before Desert Storm). Combining the rigors of the program with an espionage story is pretty daring, and Coonts tries some nifty tricks. Unfortunately, though a promising idea, to many charachters really are dual charachters with assumed identities - neither of which are defined before being revealed to be other ill-drawn charachters. There are too many secret agendas and cross-plots, though Coont's writing encourages re-reading. The charachters that aren't mysterious - "Toad" Tarkington, Rita Morovia and Grafton himself remain pretty crisp, though we haven't any of the great charachters from the first "Intruder". Still a worthy read and among Coonts' best.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Overly long and pedantic March 8, 2012

By crystalattice

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I guess I must dare to be different. Unlike everyone else who raves about this book, I found it boring the few times I have read it.

Stephen Coonts is a good author. His book "Flight of the Intruder" may be considered a classic novel of Vietnam; it was even made into a movie. The protaganist in that book, Jake Grafton, became a recurring figure in a series of novels about Naval aviation. The Minotaur is the fourth in the series.

In this book, Jake Grafton has survived a kamikaze attack on a ship carrying a terrorist who tried to capture nuclear weapons from an aircraft carrier (the main plot in the book "Final Flight"). Jake has recovered from his wounds and is dealing with the consequences of his actions. He is a hero to the nation for his actions and was awarded a Medal of Honor. However, the military considers him a renegade officer and would prefer to see him go away. However, because of his noteriety, the Navy was forced to keep him on active duty but made him "suffer" for his actions by giving him a staff position at the Pentagon. For Jake, it was the kiss of death for his career.

His role at the Pentagon was to coordinate work on a black project to build a stealth aircraft for the Navy. Additionally, the project was also working to develop a radar-cancelling device that would make stealth technology obsolete.

The main premise of the book is the espionage being conducted by various individuals to sell the secrets of the project to the Russians. Jake got the job after his predecessor was killed when an individual felt that his cover was blown. Jake eventually figures out who is ultimately giving the secrets to the Russians and learns why it was being done.

The book is quite long, nearly 600 pages. There are many subplots taking place in the book, at least six I can think of. Though the espionage-related subplots are intertwined, the number of characters involved can make it confusing to follow what is happening.

The subplot with Toad Tarkington (Jake's main friend) may make more sense if one reads Final Flight first, as he is a key player in that book. But it isn't necessary to understand this book; it just gives more background for him.

The book is interesting if you are curious about the workings of the Pentagon and the behind-the-scenes political maneuvering of the military. But most people probably already know how political anything involving the Defense Dept., especially procurement, is.

Ultimately, the book is long and boring. Unlike the other books in the series, there is no action. No bombing targets, no shipboard life anecdotes, no real anything. Even the espionage aspects aren't that thrilling, though the way they are written can be confusing until the very end. There were some interesting parts but, unlikely other books in the series, this was easy for me to put down; I didn't have to read "just one page."

Honestly, the only reason I read this book more than once was to figure out exactly what was going on (the first time I read it was in high school). The "big reveal" at the end sounds entirely plausible, that the "little people" are simply cannon fodder for politics. The convoluted storyline and multiple subplots can be difficult to follow, especially with the number of people that are mentioned.

If you are reading the "Jake Grafton series", you may as well read this one. But, in my opinion, Flight of the Intruder is the best of the series, followed by Final Flight. It may be because I'm in the Navy and the politics are too realistic, but The Minotaur is just too boring, in my opinion, and will be going in the donation bin.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Spy catcher meets techno-thriller May 19, 2004

By Rennie Petersen

Format:Mass Market Paperback

This is the sixth Stephen Coonts book I've read, and the first one that I liked so much that I'm giving it five stars.

"The Minotaur" combines two main stories that are cleverly interwoven with each other.

Story 1: There's a traitor, code named Minotaur, somewhere high up in the Pentagon who is channeling America's top military secrets to Moscow. Amazingly, the Russians don't know the identity of this mole, so not just the FBI but also the KGB are feverishly doing everything they can to find out who this traitor is.

Story 2: The U.S. Navy is in the midst of a procurement project to obtain a new attack aircraft to replace the aging A-6 Intruder. The new airplane will be based on stealth technology, including a top-secret device to actively suppress radar reflections.

I found the procurement story to be especially interesting. There's a lot of presumably authentic inside information on how the U.S. military handles the procurement of a major weapons system. The political skullduggery involved was fascinating, with a high-ranking U.S. Senator manipulating the process in an attempt to get the contract awarded to a company in his state. This Senator was more interested in his own re-election than in whether the Navy got an optimal, or even usable, aircraft!

Mixed up with the two main stories are a fair number of sub-plots, most of them concerning the lives and personalities of various people in the book. These sub-plots display Stephen Coonts' talent for creating characters who are real people, not the cardboard clichés that populate most techno-thrillers.

Overall, the most enjoyable aspect of this book is the way it draws you into the story and makes you want to learn what's happening behind the scenes and why. Who is the Minotaur? Why is he (or she) passing secrets to the Russians? Will he/she be stopped?

Unless you have a very good memory, I would recommend that you create and maintain a list of the main characters in the book. Otherwise, things can become rather confusing, and your chances of guessing who the Minotaur is will be minimal.

There are some very exciting descriptions of the test flights involved in the procurement project, first with a modified A-6 Intruder and then with two different prototypes of the new stealth attack airplane. These narratives, and some general descriptions of the joys of flying, are an added attraction in "The Minotaur." Stephen Coonts' background as a pilot and flying enthusiast is obvious here.

If you like techno-thrillers populated with real people, and if you are interested in flying and especially in military aircraft, then I'm sure you'll like "The Minotaur."

Rennie Petersen

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.

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#32 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Action & Adventure

#87 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers

#90 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers

#32 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Action & Adventure

#87 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers

#90 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers