THE MINOTAUR

Stephen Coonts' first novel, Flight of the Intruder, was hailed as one of the best novels ever written about flying and the camaraderie of men at war and it became an immediate national bestseller. His second novel, Final Flight, was an even bigger sensation and demonstrated that Coonts can write classic page-turning suspense with the best of them. Now, in THE MINOTAUR, he has written his best novel yet, a riveting story of a top secret new Advanced Tactical Aircraft and the hunt for a Soviet mole.

Jake Grafton is back! After flying A-6 Intruders in Vietnam and, seventeen years later, commanding an air wing aboard a super carrier in the Mediterranean, Jake--now grounded--is assigned to the Pentagon where he is in charge of developing the navy's new top secret stealth attack plane, the A-l2.

Faced with political and technical problems at every turn, Jake soon finds himself drawn into the hunt for the Minotaur, a mole hidden in the Pentagon who is giving America's most precious defense secrets to the Russians. The FBI's chief spy-catcher is hot on the Minotaur's trail, or is he? Just who are the traitors in this Byzantine world of technocrats, politicians, and multi-billion dollar defense programs? Four people are dead and a test pilot is near death before Grafton hones in on the shocking identity of the Minotaur--and his even more chilling motive.

Stephen Coonts' books have been widely hailed for their technical accuracy, heart-stopping suspense, and well-drawn characters. Former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman said, "Coonts' books have a unique power because his yarn is spun of real policy dilemmas, personal crises, and human failings drawn from the world and worthy of high drama."

Combining authentic details of weapons strategies and stealth technology with an all-to-real story of the international trade in military secrets--and featuring the classic flying scenes that are Coonts' trademark--THE MINOTAUR confirms that Stephen Coonts is a modern master of suspense.

The idea for this novel was planted during a conversation with my editor at Doubleday, David Gernert. We had been trying for several months to come up with an idea for a book to follow Final Flight, with no success. That morning a major story had broken in the newspapers about financial scandals in the Pentagon. With the headline in front of me, I suggested to Gernert that I might do a book about the Pentagon. And he liked the idea. Jake Grafton had to be the hero, of course. His reported demise in Final Flight had not given anyone at Doubleday a moment's angst--Coonts could resurrect him like Conan Doyle raised Sherlock Holmes. Wave a pencil and voila!

So what could Jake be doing at the Pentagon? Black programs were big at the time--'black' meaning the program was so highly classified that no one even admitted it existed. Jake seemed a natural to be right in the middle of a black airplane procurement program.

The recent exposure of the Walker spy ring was also big news about that time, and I had been noodling about it. Spies have always intrigued me; espionage is a shadow world, where nothing is what it seems. The thought occurred to me that under the right set of circumstances a nation might want to reveal a secret to a foreign government and yet hide the fact that the secret was being intentionally revealed. The intent of such a maneuver, I thought, might be a desire to influence a policy decision of the foreign government while maintaining the appearance of doing no such thing. This premise formed the foundation for the tale of the Minotaur, a spy hidden deep with the labyrinthine mazes of the Pentagon.

So at this point I had Jake Grafton, spies, and a top secret black airplane program... all I needed was a really good secret for the spies to steal. Unfortunately I didn't know any real secrets, so I would have to invent my own. This wasn't as difficult as I first thought it might be. I had been reading A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, in which Dr. Hawking clearly explained how radiation moves in waves. I recalled once seeing someone explain how a wave could be cancelled by another wave out of sync with the first one. Aha! This looked like a military project that could absorb a billion dollars before anyone noticed.

I asked a friend of mine, a PhD in physics and a radar researcher for NASA what he thought about my invention, which I dubbed Athena, after the Greek goddess of war who could make herself invisible. He thought the idea sound, noting that it would require a super fast computer to make it work. I could invent that too, and did so without further ado.

As I worked on the book I fell in love with the characters. Jake's sidekick, Toad Tarkington, leaped into the story right at the beginning. A handsome egotist like the ol' Horny Toad needed a love interest, so I created Rita Moravia, a competent, ambitious female test pilot. At the time women aviators were distinctly second-class citizens in the Navy, barred by law from flying combat jets, so I wanted Rita to be an ace pilot, all business and damn good at her job. Toad, of course, would be drawn to her like a moth to a candle.

Since the book was all about spies, I needed several. Terry Franklin was obviously drawn from some of the published accounts of the Walker case. The FBI's head spy catcher, Luis Camacho, was much more complex since he was the key to the story. Of all the characters I have created for my books, Luis Camacho stands out in my mind as one of the two or three best. Certainly he was one of the most interesting to write about. As I wrote him even I was unsure where his loyalties lay.

The airplane in the story, the A-12, was actually under development at the time I was writing. I was given a few dribbles of unclassified information by friends working in the Pentagon. The dribbles were so sparse that I couldn't even figure out what the plane looked like. I concocted something plausible, I hoped, from artist's conceptions of futuristic fighters published in Popular Science magazine and other public sources. I even purchased several models of possible stealth fighters and kept the box illustrations on my desk as I worked on the tale. Alas, I missed the actual description completely: the real A-12 was a flying wing with no tail, a very stealthy shape. My fictitious prototypes did a lot more flying than the real airplane, however, which never got off the ground before the program was cancelled by Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney.

This book contains what is perhaps my best piece of writing, the murder of spy Terry Franklin in Chapter 18. Written in one sitting, the piece begins with the words, "The day Terry Franklin died was a beautiful day..." It seemed to me that Franklin's murder would have more impact if the reader learned at the beginning of the scene that he was going to die, then followed him minute by minute waiting for the ax to fall. I thought this approach worked well, as did several of the critics who specifically mentioned and praised this chapter in their reviews. The editors at Playboy magazine didn't see it that way, and insisted the sentences discussing Franklin's impending demise be edited from the excerpt they published. They paid good money for the excerpt and it was their magazine, so they got it their way, but I thought they edited the impact out of the scene.

The title of this novel was my idea. I won the title battle with the publisher and have regretted it ever since. The book would probably have sold better if the title had not been rooted in Greek mythology: few action-adventure fans today recognize the name of the half-man/half-bull monster that King Minos imprisoned in a maze. A better title would have been The Pentagon. This book, like Flight of the Intruder, has been used as a text in college classrooms. I have been told that several colleges require students in literature courses on the modern spy novel to read THE MINOTAUR.

Dear Mr. Coonts,
I would just really like to say thank you for the continued effort that you put into the Jake Grafton series.  You are one of few authors whose works I read time and time again. Particularly Flight of the intruder and the Minotaur are my firm favorites of yours. This mail was prompted after looking at your websites and some of the comments of your readers.. So I am just firmly placing my vote in the “Steve Coonts is an author I would recommend especially if you are an aviation/espionage nut like I am“ box.
Greetings from Belgium!!
John James August 25, 2008

 I have read and really enjoyed all your books but I must say my favorite has always been THE FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER. I always was fascinated by the dichotomy that was Jake Grafton. Cynical and yet idealistic at the same time. I re-read that book frequently because there are so few characters like that.(I really loved the movie based on the book also. Any chance it will come out on DVD?) I don't know how much of your demographic you are able to catogorize but I am a 53 year female who got hooked on Jake Grafton in about 1990. I am just now realizing that I am an adrenaline addict so I loved the action sequences but I also really appreciate how strong your female characters are. When I am by myself musing about the shortage of dialogue I have heard and read for strong female characters, one quote you wrote for Rita Monrovia really stands out.( I can't remember which book, I only can recall the sentence) where she is being interviewed by Grafton to maybe be one of his test pilots and she lists her experience and then says "try me and see" I always think "Damn! that must be one gutsy pilot! Not "she must be gutsy for a woman, or even a female pilot, but she is gutsy for any pilot." I see so few characters like that these days. I think the women of America ought to be able to get together and hold 'blanket parties' for the women we judge to be too stupid to be allowed to live. We would have so many targets also, well, not Anna Nicole anymore, But ceratinly there are others who have taken her place. So thank you, you have made it a little easier to be an American woman these days."
Valerie Morse June 12, 2007

Mr. Coonts:
With all due respect to Mr. King, you are by far one of the best authors out there. I did make a mistake! I just finished reading "The Minotaur", but prior to that I read "Liberty". I enjoeyd "Liberty" to the fullest. I noticed that Toad and Rita were in that book, but in the Minotaur was where they met and Rita almost died. While reading the chapter where Rita gets into the plane accident I'm saying to myself "She doesn't die! She was in Liberty". Needless to say I should've just started reading your books in chronological order than sporadic. I am now starting to read Fortunes of War I can't wait to see what action is in there. Awesome writing! Keep em coming!!
Rafael Gonzalez May 22, 2007
 

I have just finished reading The Minotaur and wanted to thank you for the entertainment you so richly provide....You have become one of my favorite authors....If it is possible I would like to have an autographed photograph of you. Know that I would display it with pride in our Wing Civil Air Patrol Headquarters where I serve as Director of Aerospace Education and Vice Commander of the Iowa Wing." --Steven D. Palmquist

"...So far, my favorite [of your books] has been The Minotaur. The reason is I am an air force officer stationed at the Tonopah Test Range, home of the F117A stealth fighter. I really enjoyed all of the information you provided in your book on the stealth, and especially enjoyed your description of TTR. Those of us assigned to the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing are, needless ot say, very proud of the way "our" plane has been performing in the Persian Gulf. I am enclosing a photo of the stealth. I don't know if you've seen it or not. The shot was taken when our planes deployed to Saudi Arabia in August for Operation Desert Shield. Keep up the good work. I look forward to reading the next adventure of Captain Jake Grafton." --Timothy P. Harrison

"My name is John Pumphrey and I am fourteen years old. I am in the eight grade....I have one brother and sister; both are pains. I like flying remote-controlled airplanes. You are an excellent author! Right now, I am on chapter 15 in The Minotaur. It is a great book....How long does it usually take you to write this type of book? Could you please write back and possibly send an autograph or something? It would be much appreciated." --John Pumphrey

"...I am an army and marine vet, and am currently working in law enforcement here in Orange County, Calif. I just had to write you and tell you how much I enjoyed your books...especially The Minotaur. Man, I was sweating blood through the whole book....Thank you for providing the most exciting stories I've ever read!" --Ed Martinez