The Minotaur (1989)

by Stephen Coonts

Series: Jake Grafton [Publication Order] (3), Jake Grafton (4)

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840	8	26,173	(3.28)	26
Fiction. Thriller. HTML: *From a New York Times�??bestselling author: A military pilot is entangled in the hunt for a Cold War spy selling high-tech secrets to the USSR.* Navy 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 counterespionage centered on the deadly traitor code-named the Minotaur, he stands to lose much more than just his career. The Minotaur is an exhilarating thriller revealing the complexities of military technology R&D by the acclaimed author of Flight of the Intruder, The Red Horseman, and other novels. In the words of Tom Clancy, "Stephen Coonts, like Jake Grafton, just keeps getting better." This ebook features an illustrated biography of Stephen Coonts, including rare photos from the author's personal collection.… (more)

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Jack Grafton (who seems to follow the same career path as Jack Ryan) survived the last book and is put at a desk in Pentagon. His mission, should he choose to accept it, is to figure out the specification for the next navy attack plane (ATA, A-12) while fighting trying to keep everything secret. All this in the middle of the hunt for soviet moles and industry infiltrators.

(In real life A-12 was cancelled in 1991 and replaced by F/A-18E/F Super Hornet)

In this book the author makes no secret of his ill feeling (to put it mildly) for politicians suggesting cuts of the military. It's a bit over the edge and is one of many reasons these books are pulp literature.

Still, I enjoy the books so 3 stars. Not recommending them to random reader though. You have to like military fiction. (

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bratell | Dec 25, 2020 |

Very good action/spy story. I will read some more in this series. (

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rendier | Dec 20, 2020 |

"Slow reading for Coonts" There's a traitor in the Pentagon - and Jake Grafton must find out his identity before it's too late... Cold War mentalities present when it came to technology and the world in 1980

MasseyLibrary | Mar 14, 2018 |

This novel in the series involves acquisition, flying, spies and intrigue. One can hardly put the thing down. Jake and Toad test a stealth airplane, which I believe that the Navy cancelled (in real life). Names are cleverly camouflaged, but obvious for the time of writing...Secnav Lehman as Lanman, for example. Who would have thought that a staff job could be so exciting? (

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buffalogr | Jan 23, 2014 |

From one of the book boxes that Moem sent to me. This one will stay here untill I've read it.

I liked this book. Not the best espionage book I've ever read, but it was okay.
What I disliked most, was the fact that I could not quite follow the who did what in the espionage part. The main thread was easy to follow, Grafton and his task to be completed.

The spies, the counter spies, the Minotaur.... for me they were a bit shady in motives and who did what. But spy business is always a bit shady, so I coped the best I could. The book left me with the question why it was written like this.
Okay, money is a very important motivator for the person who sells secrets and preventing the other side from getting too far ahead technologically for the person / country who buys. I did not find anything spectacular, surprising in this book, so I'm a bit disappointed. (

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BoekenTrol71 | Mar 31, 2013 |

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Belongs to Series

Jake Grafton (4)

Jake Grafton [Publication Order] (3)

Is contained in

The Jake Grafton Collection: The Intruders, The Minotaur, Under Siege, and The Red Horseman by Stephen Coonts

Is abridged in

Reader's Digest Condensed Books: The Scarlet Thread • King of the Wild • What Was Good About Today • The Minotaur by Reader's Digest

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New York Times bestseller (Fiction – 1989)

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1989

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Jake Grafton

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English

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Stephen Coonts

▾Book descriptions

Fiction. Thriller. HTML:

From a New York Times�??bestselling author: A military pilot is entangled in the hunt for a Cold War spy selling high-tech secrets to the USSR.
Navy 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 counterespionage centered on the deadly traitor code-named the Minotaur, he stands to lose much more than just his career.

The Minotaur is an exhilarating thriller revealing the complexities of military technology R&D by the acclaimed author of Flight of the Intruder, The Red Horseman, and other novels. In the words of Tom Clancy, "Stephen Coonts, like Jake Grafton, just keeps getting better."

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

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Jake Grafton is now assigned to the Pentagon where he is sucked into the search for a mole called the Minotaur.

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