Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0870212001, Hardcover)

"Flight of the Intruder will join the classics…once begun, it cannot be laid aside."--John Lehman in the Wall Street Journal

"Bristles with the same authenticity that helped catapult The Hunt for Red October to the top of the best-seller list . . . Coonts’ pilots are the real McCoy and his compassion for them sustains his story from first page to last." –Kirkus Reviews

"No book has ever opened the world of naval aviators like this. Once you start reading you won’t want to stop."—Tom Clancy

"A first novel of impressive power and authenticity . . . when Grafton is at the controls of his Intruder, the novel comes alive with a jolt."—Washington Post

"A moving novel of men at war that captures the horrifying sweep of battle and its nerve-shattering emotional effects."—San Diego Union

"Packed with action, emotion, suspense, and tragedy, Flight of the Intruder offers profound and gripping insight into the lives and loves of naval carrier pilots."—Clive Cussler

"A superbly written story laced with intricate technical detail of modern aerial warfare and authentic dialogue."—Washington Times

"When he is flying, Jake’s exhilaration is contagious; his instincts meld with the controls of his aircraft, and is life-or-death decision sharpen his senses."—New York Times

Hailed as the finest combat aviation novel to emerge from the Vietnam War, Flight of the Intruder spent twenty-eight weeks on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list and became one of the top twenty best-selling first novels of all time. An instant classic, the book was translated into more than twenty languages and made into a major motion picture. Its hero, Jake Grafton, became a household name and the star of more than a dozen other Coonts’ bestsellers. In the twenty years since the book’s debut, millions of copies have been sold. But this twentieth-anniversary edition is unique. To mark the occasion, Stephen Coonts has written a preface explaining how he came to write the novel and restored an epilogue that was edited out of the original edition in 1986.

Without question, the strength of the book lies in its flying scenes when Jake Grafton straps himself into the cockpit of his A-6 Intruder. Jake’s love of flying is contagious whether you are picking up the book for the first time or rereading it for the third. No one better captures the world of Navy carrier pilots than Stephen Coonts. An Intruder pilot who flew combat missions off the deck of the USS Enterprise in the Vietnam War, Coonts lived the life he writes about, and he puts readers inside the hearts and minds of the pilots to reveal a world unknown to those outside the naval aviators’ fraternity. Few will forget the book’s final gut-wrenching scene when Jake’s once-innocent love of flying gives way to guilt and frustration and the need to give meaning to the deaths of his comrades.