Background
Stephen Coonts was born on July 19, 1946, in Morgantown, and grew up in Buckhannon, West Virginia, a small coal-mining town.
2012
Stephen Coonts (born July 19, 1946) is an American thriller and suspense novelist.
2012
SSGT Eric Klopfer and Stephen Coonts in an M1A1 Abrams belonging to the 2nd Brigade, 2/8 Infantry Battalion, 4th Infantry Division.
2012
Stephen Coonts is flying the Breezy with the grandkids.
2014
Six former junior officers, three pilots, and three BNs, in front of the A-6 Intruder at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. From the left: Stan Bryant, Whitey Sorenson, Doug Shepherd, Mike Fischer, Steve Coonts, and Bob Neuman.
2015
Stephen Coonts
2017
Coonts signs his novel, The Armageddon File.
2017
Coonts with his new novel, The Armageddon File.
West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
Coonts earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science at West Virginia University in 1968.
Naval Air Station Pensacola, Pensacola, Florida, United States
After joining the Navy upon graduation and then going to Officer Candidate School, Coonts went to flight school at Naval Air Station Pensacola and earned his wings as a Naval Aviator in 1969.
University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States
Coonts pursued a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree at the University of Colorado, graduating in 1979.
Stephen Coonts with his novel, The Art of War.
(Jake and his new bombardier, ice-cold Tiger Cole, are goi...)
Jake and his new bombardier, ice-cold Tiger Cole, are going to pick their own target and hit the enemy where it hurts. But to get there and back in one piece is going to take a lot of nerve, even more skill, and an incredible amount of raw courage. Before it's over, they're going to fly into hell.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003E4CXOK/?tag=2022091-20
1986
(The most daring - and deadly - a terrorist plot of all ti...)
The most daring - and deadly - a terrorist plot of all time is about to unfold aboard the supercarrier USS United States. If it succeeds, the balance of nuclear power will tilt in favor of a remorseless Arab leader. And it looks as if no one can stop it - except navy "jet jock" Jake Grafton. "Cag " Grafton is one helluva pilot. His F-14 Tomcat is one helluva plane. But some of Jake's crewmates have already vanished. A woman reporter who boarded the ship in Tangiers may not be who she claims to be.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003IYI6QA/?tag=2022091-20
1988
(When the psychotic Colombian drug lord Chano Aldana is ex...)
When the psychotic Colombian drug lord Chano Aldana is extradited to the United States for trial, he brings his army of vicious mercenaries with him. And as Aldana’s hitmen target the President of the United States, the capital is plunged into chaos that only veteran fighter pilot Jake Grafton can stop. With the help of an investigative journalist and an undercover agent, Grafton must find the deadly assassins before they can strike again. But time is running out, and the future of the country hangs in the balance. Â
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0048EKJMS/?tag=2022091-20
1990
(Jake Grafton has been promoted to deputy director of a ne...)
Jake Grafton has been promoted to deputy director of a new US intelligence agency - and the stakes of his commission are higher than ever before. With the Soviet Union on the brink of dissolution, a vast nuclear arsenal is suddenly ripe for the taking by mercenaries, rogue nations, and insane Russian nationalists. Grafton must stop them, and he may have to do it alone - because not everyone supposedly on his side wants him to succeed.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GTLSBG/?tag=2022091-20
1993
(Fighter pilot Jake Grafton is adrift following combat in ...)
Fighter pilot Jake Grafton is adrift following combat in Vietnam. With no place in the States to call home, Grafton sticks to what he knows best: taking on the world’s most treacherous skies from the cockpit of a Grumman A-6 Intruder. Now, stationed in the South Pacific on the U.S.S. Columbia, Grafton must teach the Marines aboard the art of flying from an aircraft carrier - a mission that, thanks to the unruly Marine Captain Le Beau, is as joyless as it is dangerous.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0048EKJN2/?tag=2022091-20
1994
(Four Japanese nationalists storm Tokyo's imperial palace ...)
Four Japanese nationalists storm Tokyo's imperial palace and behead the emperor. Their goal: to invade Russia and conquer oil-rich Siberia in order to dominate the globe. Soon the world explodes in war, as Japan, Russia, and the United States go head-to-head in a struggle that threatens total destruction. Now three men from three different nations must meet their ultimate challenge: to fight as patriots in a war driven by greed and madness - and save the planet from nothing less than a full-scale nuclear attack.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004H1U6G6/?tag=2022091-20
1998
(In Cuba, Fidel Castro lies dying. Human sharks are circli...)
In Cuba, Fidel Castro lies dying. Human sharks are circling. And one man has his finger on the trigger of a weapon that will change everything... Admiral Jake Grafton is overseeing a shipment of nerve gas being transferred for a top-secret United States stockpile at Guantanamo Bay. But a power struggle inside Cuba has ignited an explosive plot and turned a horrific new weapon on the United States. Now, Jake must strap himself into the cockpit of a new generation of American aircraft and fly blind into the heart of an island that is about to blow - and take the whole world with it...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003JH86GQ/?tag=2022091-20
1999
(Jake Grafton takes his wife, Callie, along when the Unite...)
Jake Grafton takes his wife, Callie, along when the United States government sends him to Hong Kong to find out how deeply the U.S. consul-general is embedded in a political money-raising scandal. And why not? Jake and Callie met and fell in love in Hong Kong during the Vietnam War, and the consul-general is an old friend from those days, Tiger Cole. The Graftons quickly discover that Hong Kong is a powder keg ready to explode. A political murder and the closure of a foreign bank by the communist government are the sparks that light the fuse... and Tiger Cole is right in the middle of the action.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003J5UI78/?tag=2022091-20
2000
(Rear Admiral Jake Grafton fears something worse than a gr...)
Rear Admiral Jake Grafton fears something worse than a grave malfunction - he suspects sabotage... The USS America - the world's most technically advanced nuclear submarine is launched on its maiden voyage. Then shortly after steaming out of the harbor, the unthinkable happens. Pirated by terrorists, America disappears beneath the roiling waves of the Atlantic, its Tomahawk warheads aimed directly at the United States... An ingeniously calculated war has been waged but the rouge enemy is far more insidious than Jake Grafton ever imagined. His mission: ferret out the core group responsible, overtake the stealth sub, and destroy it. But times is running out, and the race is on for Grafton to blow the covert operation out of the water before an entire nation is brought to its knees.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QS9TRA/?tag=2022091-20
2001
(When Rip Cantrell, a seismic survey worker in the Sahara,...)
When Rip Cantrell, a seismic survey worker in the Sahara, spots a glint of reflected light in the distance, he investigates and finds a piece of metal apparently entombed in the sandstone. Before long, Rip and his colleagues uncover a flying saucer that has been resting there for 140,000 years. Their discovery doesn't remain a secret for long.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001RF3UF4/?tag=2022091-20
2002
(As the world moves into the next millennium, the United S...)
As the world moves into the next millennium, the United States finds itself at the forefront of this new age, policing not only its own shores but the rest of the world as well. And spearheading this overwatch are the men and women of America's armed forces, the "troops on the wall," who will go anywhere, anytime, and do whatever it takes to protect not only our nation but the rest of the free world. Now, for the first time, Combat brings the best military-fiction authors together to reveal how war will be fought in the twenty-first century. From the down and dirty "ground-pounders" of the United States Armored Cavalry to the new frontiers of warfare, including outer space and the Internet, ten authors whose novels define the military-fiction genre have written all-new short stories about the men and women willing to put their lives on the line for freedom: Larry Bond takes us into the wild frontier of space warfare, where American soldiers fight a dangerous zero-gee battle with a tenacious enemy that threatens every free nation on Earth. Dale Brown lets us inside a world that few people see, that of a military promotion board, and shows us how the fate of an EB-52 Megafortress pilot's career can depend on a man he's never met, even as the pilot takes on the newest threat to American forces in the Persian Gulf - a Russian stealth bomber.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FO6F3C0/?tag=2022091-20
2002
(One United States agency has what it takes to find out-th...)
One United States agency has what it takes to find out-the National Security Agency and its covert operations team: Deep Black. Working for the NSA, ex-Marine sniper Charlie Dean is dispatched to Russia, hooking up with former Delta Force trooper Lia DeFrancesca to find out what happened to the plane. The Deep Black team stumbles across an even more alarming secret-a plot to assassinate the Russian president and overthrow the democratic government by force. The coup could have dire consequences for Russia and the world.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GKMMR4/?tag=2022091-20
2003
(After passing Illin's message to his superiors, Grafton i...)
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.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003JH86H0/?tag=2022091-20
2003
(Carmellini is sent to post guard duty at a farmhouse in W...)
Carmellini is sent to post guard duty at a farmhouse in West Virginia's remote Allegheny Mountains, where top government operatives are debriefing a star defector: the ultimate KGB insider, a man with records on every operation and every dirty trick the shadowy intelligence agency has ever run, from Lenin to Putin. Carmellini arrives to find the guards shot dead and a ruthless team of commandos - American commandos - killing everyone in sight, then setting the house on fire. He escapes in a hail of bullets with what seems to be the sole survivor, a stunningly attractive translator who then steals his car, abandoning him, after a deadly mountain car chase. But one other person survived the massacre: The man whose fractured memory holds the KGB's most embarrassing secrets, including something for which someone will kill to keep it quiet.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003HOXLW0/?tag=2022091-20
2004
(In a secluded headquarters on the other side of the globe...)
In a secluded headquarters on the other side of the globe a terrorist mission is an underway a plan to set-off an underwater explosion so great, and with such hellish force, that it could shift the very foundation of the earth's surface causing untold calamity and world-wide disaster. The terrorists call it God's Revenge. A nuclear warhead has gone missing. Small in size, it packs up to ten times the kilotons that exploded over Hiroshima. It's now in the wrong hands, ready to detonate a world war of unfathomable proportions. In the top-secret headquarters of the National Security Agency, a small cadre of special agents form Deep Black, designed to bring a techno edge to covert operations and eliminate the cyber threats to world peace.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002H8ORLG/?tag=2022091-20
2004
(Rip Cantrell is brought back to give the saucer one last ...)
Rip Cantrell is brought back to give the saucer one last flight. Charley Pine has started flying for a rich French tycoon, and there is believed to be another downed saucer somewhere in the area. Rip can't quite get over the fact that Charley has dumped him. But when push comes to shove Rip and the United States Government are going to go head to head with this crazy Frenchman in trying to be the first to the saucer. As Stephen Coonts proved in his last outing, there is a great deal of high-flying adventure to be found in the Saucer series. And this one not only promises all the excitement of the last one, but it delivers with much, much more.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004O0TULC/?tag=2022091-20
2004
(Word is out to ex-Marine sniper Charlie Dean and his team...)
Word is out to ex-Marine sniper Charlie Dean and his team of the National Security Agency: Infiltrate the highest stratum of Peruvian political power and derail a renegade general from acing an election. All Dean has to do is find a way inside an impenetrable bank vault protected by armed guards round the clock–it's all in a day's work for the men and women of Deep Black.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0029LCK0G/?tag=2022091-20
2005
(When he is assigned to Paris, CIA officer Tommy Carmellin...)
When he is assigned to Paris, CIA officer Tommy Carmellini joins his old boss Jake Grafton on a bold mission: To locate a French intelligence agent who has secret investments in the Bank of Palestine. Together they work to unravel a tangle of espionage, deception, and murder… and develop an elaborate strategy to infiltrate the highest levels of Al Queda. Meanwhile, the leaders of the G-8 industrialized nations will soon meet in Paris - an event that would make a tempting terrorist target. Throw into the mix the beautiful, clever daughter of the French ambassador to Washington and an Israeli spy or two, and the stage is set for a tour de force of deception and drama.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000R7PUV0/?tag=2022091-20
2006
(The word's most effective anti-terrorist force has the to...)
The word's most effective anti-terrorist force has the tools to monitor every move the enemy makes. They've planted a listening device inside a terrorist's skull and activated a video spy drone disguised as a bird. But knowing is only half the battle… Multi-lingual, nerves-of-steel agents Charlie Dean, Lia DeFrancesca, and Tommy Karr prowl the winding streets of Istanbul to the crowded airports of America to stop terrorists in their tracks. Hooked into a real-time, high-tech system, this army of three goes head-to-head with the most dangerous people in the world.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000SEGNRM/?tag=2022091-20
2007
(In the finale of Coonts's last novel The Traitor, the rut...)
In the finale of Coonts's last novel The Traitor, the ruthless and brilliant Al Qaeda leader who nearly succeeded in blowing up a meeting of the Group of 7 in Paris slipped the noose and escaped. But Abu Qasim has another trick up his sleeve: he has offered to pay a the Mafia a fortune to help him bring New York to its knees. The CIA learns that something is up and a worried president sends his best - Jake Grafton and his secret weapon, Tommy Carmellini. Tommy is soon in grave danger as he tries to piece the deadly puzzle together. Set amidst ticking bombs and flying bullets, the stakes have never been higher. Will Tommy put it all together in time t stop the disaster? Or will the terrorists set events in motion that will leave America reeling?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UZPH62/?tag=2022091-20
2008
(A Secret Service agent is dead, an apparent suicide. A pr...)
A Secret Service agent is dead, an apparent suicide. A presidential candidate narrowly escapes an assassin's bullet. And Desk Three, a convert branch of the NSA, is searching for a chilling connection deep inside the Republic of Vietnam. Once, Charlie Dean was a Marine sniper in Quang Nam Province. Today he's a Deep Black operator, returning to Vietnam to find the source of some threatening e-mails. Instead, he comes face to face with a man he had once hunted down… and thought he had killed.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013TPUYI/?tag=2022091-20
2008
(Tommy Carmellini and Jake Grafton can stop a nuclear nigh...)
Tommy Carmellini and Jake Grafton can stop a nuclear nightmare Iran is much closer to having operational nuclear weapons than the CIA believes, and Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has a plan. Iran will become a martyr nation, and Ahmadinejad will lead the united Muslims of the world in a holy war against the non-believers. But 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.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VOGQRE/?tag=2022091-20
2009
(In Washington, ex-Marine Charlie Dean and his team at Des...)
In Washington, ex-Marine Charlie Dean and his team at Desk Three trace the abduction back to the Russian mafia, who have their sights set on the massive reserves of oil that lie thousands of feet below the ocean's floor. While Dean is sent to the Arctic to rescue the hostages, the beautiful Lia DeFrancesca penetrates a heavily guarded dacha on the shores of the Black Sea. Here she learns the explosive truth about Russia and its Arctic oil - one that could cost Dean and his Deep Black team their lives… and drive the world's superpowers to the brink of war.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002LA09OY/?tag=2022091-20
2009
(Two massive ships are on a dual path to destruction. One ...)
Two massive ships are on a dual path to destruction. One is a freighter carrying nuclear materials to Japan; the other, a cruise ship heading for the Mediterranean. Neither will reach their destinations. Two factions - Japanese eco-terrorists and Middle East extremists - have joined forces to infiltrate the ships, incapacitate the crew, and change course toward a common target: The United States of America. In Washington, Charlie Dean and a team of commandos are dispatched on a life-or-death mission to blow the hijackers' plot out of the water. Their plan: board the ship unnoticed, pose as ordinary passengers and overtake the terrorists. But time is running out.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003H4I530/?tag=2022091-20
2010
(A luxurious vacation cruise to the exotic locales of the ...)
A luxurious vacation cruise to the exotic locales of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden turns into a nightmare for passengers and crew when their ship is suddenly attacked and captured by a band of bloodthirsty Somali pirates. An initial rescue mission ends in failure; the decks are covered in blood. Unless they are paid a ransom of $200 million dollars within seven days, the pirates threaten to execute all their hostages.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008RLU02C/?tag=2022091-20
2013
(The president of the United States stands on an outdoor s...)
The president of the United States stands on an outdoor stage, flanked by powerful members of his administration and party. Television crews are preparing for broadcast. High above the stage, on a nearby rooftop, a decorated sniper adjusts the scope on his rifle. Afterward, America will never be the same. Jake Grafton and Tommy Carmellini suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of the law when a public act of violence throws the country into chaos just before a presidential election. After martial law is declared and rioting begins, Grafton and Carmellini must risk everything to unravel a massive conspiracy and help a new resistance movement rise up against an unimaginable enemy.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B6SEL5E/?tag=2022091-20
2016
(After one of the most contentious and divisive elections ...)
After one of the most contentious and divisive elections in American history, the new president is finally settling into the West Wing. But when his chief of staff discovers evidence that voting machines in key counties in swing states were tampered with, the whole administration is in danger of unraveling. Did someone steal the election? Are America's enemies involved? Were the tampered-with machines actually rigged to swing the election the other way - and if so and the plot failed, what is the conspirators' backup plan?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XKLT581/?tag=2022091-20
2017
(It Starts with a Murder... Will It End with a Coup? Burgl...)
It Starts with a Murder... Will It End with a Coup? Burglar-turned-CIA-warrior Tommy Carmellini has starred in eight previous Coonts thrillers. With the help of his mentor, Admiral Grafton, Carmellini has always managed to foil his enemies. Discovering and defeating the powerful forces behind this massive bloodstained financial conspiracy that threatens the very foundations of the United States government, and maybe the life of the president of the United States, will be his most difficult challenge yet - and perhaps, he suspects, an impossible one.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BTK1BGK/?tag=2022091-20
2019
(Kegan has left behind an unidentified dead man with a .22...)
Kegan has left behind an unidentified dead man with a .22 caliber hole in his skull-and a contact trail that leads to an alleged terrorist cell. Unraveling the mystery is a job for Kegan's best friend, NSA operative Charlie Dean. His mission is to infiltrate the scientist's circle of associates and decipher Kegan's confidential research. Dispatched to cover Charlie is Delta Force trooper, Lia Francesca. The trail leads them to the core of a widespread killer fever that's been dormant for centuries-and its link to a virus that's quickly spreading victim by victim. With time running out Charlie and Lia must find Kegan, uncover his secrets, cut a terrorist threat to the quick, and stop the unimaginable outbreak of a new biological nightmare.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002H8ORN4/?tag=2022091-20
lawyer military novelist writer
Stephen Coonts was born on July 19, 1946, in Morgantown, and grew up in Buckhannon, West Virginia, a small coal-mining town.
Coonts earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science at West Virginia University in 1968. After joining the Navy upon graduation and then going to Officer Candidate School, Coonts went to flight school at Naval Air Station Pensacola and earned his wings as a Naval Aviator in 1969. In 1979 he received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Colorado.
The following year after the graduation from the university, Coonts entered the Navy and flew an A-6 Intruder medium attack plane during the Vietnam War, where he served on two combat cruises aboard the USS Enterprise (CVN-65). His navigator-bombardier was LTjg Stanley W Bryant, who later became a Rear Admiral and deputy commander-in-chief of the US naval forces in Europe.
After the war, Coonts served as a flight instructor for A-6 aircraft for two years, then did a tour as an assistant catapult and arresting gear officer aboard USS Nimitz (CVN-68). After being honorably discharged from duty as a lieutenant in 1977.
After receiving his law degree, he then worked as a lawyer for several oil and gas companies, pursuing his writing interests in his free time. Coonts published short stories in a number of publications before writing Flight of the Intruder in 1986. That book, based in part on his experiences as an A-6 pilot during the Vietnam War, spent 28 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists, and later (1991) was made into a movie.
This launched his career as a novelist, and he continued writing adventure-thrillers, most of them based on the main character from his first book, Jake Grafton. Coonts has also written several other series and stand-alone novels but is best known for the Grafton books. In 1992, he was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Alumni at his alma mater, West Virginia University.
Today Coonts continues to write, having had over seventeen New York Times bestsellers.
(Carmellini is sent to post guard duty at a farmhouse in W...)
2004(In a secluded headquarters on the other side of the globe...)
2004(A luxurious vacation cruise to the exotic locales of the ...)
2013(In Washington, ex-Marine Charlie Dean and his team at Des...)
2009(After passing Illin's message to his superiors, Grafton i...)
2003(Word is out to ex-Marine sniper Charlie Dean and his team...)
2005(When he is assigned to Paris, CIA officer Tommy Carmellin...)
2006(Tommy Carmellini and Jake Grafton can stop a nuclear nigh...)
2009(In the finale of Coonts's last novel The Traitor, the rut...)
2008(When Rip Cantrell, a seismic survey worker in the Sahara,...)
2002(As the world moves into the next millennium, the United S...)
2002(When the psychotic Colombian drug lord Chano Aldana is ex...)
1990(Jake Grafton has been promoted to deputy director of a ne...)
1993(After one of the most contentious and divisive elections ...)
2017(Jake Grafton takes his wife, Callie, along when the Unite...)
2000(One United States agency has what it takes to find out-th...)
2003(The president of the United States stands on an outdoor s...)
2016(The most daring - and deadly - a terrorist plot of all ti...)
1988(Jake and his new bombardier, ice-cold Tiger Cole, are goi...)
1986(The word's most effective anti-terrorist force has the to...)
2007(Rear Admiral Jake Grafton fears something worse than a gr...)
2001(Four Japanese nationalists storm Tokyo's imperial palace ...)
1998(Fighter pilot Jake Grafton is adrift following combat in ...)
1994(Rip Cantrell is brought back to give the saucer one last ...)
2004(Kegan has left behind an unidentified dead man with a .22...)
(A Secret Service agent is dead, an apparent suicide. A pr...)
2008(Two massive ships are on a dual path to destruction. One ...)
2010(In Cuba, Fidel Castro lies dying. Human sharks are circli...)
1999(It Starts with a Murder... Will It End with a Coup? Burgl...)
2019In his religious affiliation, Stephen Coonts is a Roman Catholic.
Quotations: "An adult who brings a child into the world is responsible for raising that child. That means supervision. Without adequate supervision and intervention by parents and teachers, you get frightening results. The shooters in the Columbine case were suicidal, homicidal maniacs. They were insane, by any definition you could pick. I think that there is a lot of bullying that goes on in these big, impersonal schools, and it's unfortunate that it doesn't get stopped by the teachers and the principal who are fearful of being sued if they intervene. Some of these kids' lives are turned into living hell by peer pressure, bullying, constant teasing, and harassment. Add the lack of attention by parents and teachers, and the kid ends up feeling so mistreated that he buys a gun and gets revenge (in his mind). He may even think it's self-defense. Some of the violence is probably a scream for help in disguise. It's a real tragedy that we must address as a country."
Coonts likes to collect knives, guns, go hunting with his friends.
Stephen Coonts was married two times. His first wife's name was Nancy Quereau, whom he married on February 19, 1971 (divorced 1985). He has three children from his first marriage: Rachael Diane Quereau, Lara Danielle Quereau, David Paul. Coonts has married again to Deborah Buell on April 12, 1995. His wife is also a pilot, and they log many hours flying each month in one of their four airplanes.