Liberty (Jake Grafton Series #10)

On a quiet park bench in Manhattan—-just miles from the ruins of the World Trade Center—-spymaster Jake Janos Illin delivers a chilling secret message to Jake Grafton: A rogue Russian general has sold four nuclear warheads to a radical Islamic terrorist group, the Sword of Islam. The group intends to detonate them in America in the ultimate terror strike, the apocalypse that will trigger a holy war between Western civilization and the Muslim world. After passing Illin’s message to his superiors, Grafton is charged by the president with the task of assembling a secret team to find the warheads before America’s population centers are consumed by a nuclear holocaust.

As he hunts for the terrorists, Grafton soon finds himself up to his neck in power politics, techno-billionaires, money-grubbing traitors, anarchists, and spies. He also discovers that the terrorists don’t all come from the Middle East. They come from places close to home. They masquerade as patriots. Some may even have the president’s ear.

With the survival of Western civilization at stake, Grafton pulls out all the stops. Calling on the assistance of the indomitable Toad Tarkington, and CIA burglar Tommy Carmellini, he raids the prisons to assemble his team while the clock ticks toward Armageddon.

Peopled with the rich, vivid characters that have made Stephen Coonts famous worldwide, Liberty is all action and suspense from the very first page. And it poses the unanswerable question: How far should civilization go to defend itself from its mortal enemies?

Editorial Reviews

Coonts's latest gripping espionage thriller (after America, Hong Kong and Cuba) continues the adventures of Adm. Jack Grafton as he pursues major malefactors. This time, a rogue Russian general has sold nuclear warheads to a Mideastern anti-American terrorist best known for "hacking some tourists to death with a machete" in Egypt. Grafton must identify and locate the terrorist and his cronies before he detonates the weapons in the U.S. The action moves from central Russia and Suez to the American east coast. Readers familiar with the series know that while Grafton's methods trample on the law, the FBI and, especially, the CIA, he will be supported by persons at the highest level of government. Coonts's naval background and his legal education bring considerable authority to the story, and the narrative is loaded with detailed information about terrorist networks, modern weaponry and international intrigue. The plot is so intricate and involves so many characters that readers might lose track of who's who, though Coonts delineates the major players skillfully. The best character is a computer hacker whom Grafton gets released from prison so that she can invade the databases of law enforcement agencies in Washington. The action is slam-bang, and shifts in point of view accelerate the tension. The climax, played out in the recently renovated interior of the Statue of Liberty, is made for the movies. By the novel's end, Grafton is so detested by law enforcement that the only thing for him to do is retire. Readers will hope it's only temporary. Regional author tour. (Feb.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

About The Author:

One of America's premier authors of action-adventure thrillers, Stephen Coonts broke into publishing in 1986 with his national bestseller Flight of the Intruder, hailed as one of the best novels ever written about flying and the camaraderie of men at war.

A veteran naval aviator who flew the A-6 Intruder during the Vietnam War, Coonts has followed his debut smash with many more novels featuring his protaganist Jake Grafton, each full of the riveting action and page-turning suspense that has gained him a legion of loyal fans.

In addition to his Jake Grafton books, Coonts also has written stand-alone thrillers, a smattering of sci fi and nonfiction, and the Deep Black series, which is co-authored with Jim DeFelice.

Good To Know

Coonts once held jobs as a taxi driver, a police officer, and an attorney.

He was a trustee of West Virginia Wesleyan College from 1990-98 and was inducted into the West Virginia University Academy of Distinguished Alumni in 1992.

Feature Interviews

In the summer of 2003, Coonts took time out to answer some of our questions.

What was the book that most influenced your life -- and why?
Fate Is the Hunter by Ernest K. Gann. This book convinced me that I wanted to learn to fly. Gann explained the craft of flying so that the reader would understand what it was the pilot did, which allowed him to create tension, suspense, and emotion in the cockpit, something a great many writers before and after him failed to do. I tried to do the same thing in my first novel, Flight of the Intruder and in subsequent flying stories.

What are your all-time favorite books -- and what makes them special to you?

The Odyssey by Homer, translation by Robert Fitzgerald. The world's first novel, and perhaps the best. It seems that everyone who ever learned Greek tried his hand at translating The Odyssey, but in my opinion, Fitzgerald did it best. No one else has even come close.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Hemingway correctly labeled this book the greatest American novel, and it still is. It was very avant-garde when it came out, due to its spare lean style and lack of moral viewpoint, and pointed the way for modern American fiction. Due to its use of racial epithets common to 1840s Missouri, politically correct pinheads like to ban it from classrooms today. You should read it for that reason, if no other.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. This timeless classic was, perhaps, the first modern action adventure. This is how adventure should be written.

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. A classic masterpiece, one of the books that created the genre of science fiction.

The Army of the Potomac trilogy by Bruce Catton. The epic myth of the American Civil War has never been told better.

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill by William Manchester. This is an extraordinary biography of one of the towering figures of the 20th century and perhaps the greatest Englishman of them all, by one of America's greatest writers. Manchester is sublime.

The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. Simply the best thriller ever penned.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. A sizzling, dazzling tour de force, although not for everyone. It is fiction so good that most readers assume it is literally true.

What kinds of movies do you like?
I like cowboy movies, action adventure, and chick flicks.

What are your favorite books to give as gifts?
Dr. Seuss books never go out of style. Buy a handful for every kid you know, and every set of new parents, for Christmas, birthdays, and the 4th of July.