Stephen Coonts Books in Order

Stephen Coonts is a writer from the United States. Coonts was born in Buckhannon, West Virginia, in July 1946. He has worked as a taxi driver and a cop, but his military career presides. Coonts joined the United States Navy after graduating from West Virginia University. He served as an officer on a Navy plane carrier and as a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War. After leaving the Navy, he earned a doctorate of law degree at the University of Colorado and did legal work for oil companies. He quit this after the instant acclaim of his first book and is now a full-time fiction writer.

Coonts made his debut in 1986, with Flight of The Intruder, a techno-thriller, historical fiction, and a military fiction novel. He is known for both his standalone novels as well as the Jake Grafton series. 

Flight of the Intruder, the first book in the series, takes place during the Vietnam War, with Jake Grafton as the main character. This book contains an autobiographical component. Grafton, just like the author, is a Navy officer-cum-carrier pilot.

Coonts is still active as a writer, with 16 New York Times bestsellers (out of 36 books) under his belt. He lives in Colorado with Deborah Jean, his third wife.

Stephen Coonts Books in order 

Deep Black

1. Deep Black (2003)
2. Biowar (2004)
3. Dark Zone (2004)
4. Payback (2005)
5. Jihad (2007)
6. Conspiracy (2008)
7. Arctic Gold (2009)
8. Sea of Terror (2010)
9. Death Wave (2011)

Jake Grafton

1. Flight of the Intruder (1986)
2. Final Flight (1988)
3. The Minotaur (1989)
4. Under Siege (1990)
5. The Red Horseman (1993)
6. The Intruders (1994)
7. Cuba (1999)
8. Hong Kong (2000)
9. America (2001)
10. Liberty (2003)

Saucer

1. Saucer (2002)
2. The Conquest (2004)
3. Savage Planet (2014)

Tommy Carmellini

1. Liars & Thieves (2004)
2. The Traitor (2006)
3. The Assassin (2008)
4. The Disciple (2009)
5. Pirate Alley (2013)
6. The Art of War (2016)
7. Liberty’s Last Stand (2016)
8. The Armageddon File (2017)
9. The Russia Account (2018)

Standalone Novel

1. Fortunes of War (1998)
2. The Garden of Eden (2005)
3. The Sea Witch (2012)
4. Clash of the Carriers: The True Story of the Marianas Turkey Shoot of World War II (2018)
5. Dragon’s Jaw: An Epic Story of Courage and Tenacity in Vietnam (2019)

Standalone Non-fiction

1. The Cannibal Queen (1992)
2. War in the Air (1996)

Bob Lee Swagger

1. Point of Impact (1993)
2. Black Light (1996)
3. Time to Hunt (1998)
4. The 47th Samurai (2007)
5. Night of Thunder (2008)
6. I, Sniper (2009)
7. Dead Zero (2010)
8. The Third Bullet (2013)
9. Sniper’s Honor (2014)
10. G-Man (2017)
11. Game of Snipers (2019)
12. Targeted (2022)
13. Hot Springs (2000)

Earl Swagger

1. Pale Horse Coming (2001)
2. Havana (2003)

Ray Cruz

1. Dead Zero (2010)
2. Soft Target (2011)

Standalone Novel

1. The Master Sniper (1980)
2. The Second Saladin (1982)
3. The Spanish Gambit (1985)
4. The Day Before Midnight, (1989)
5. Dirty White Boys (1994)
6. I, Ripper (2015)
7. Basil’s War (2021)

Short Stories/Novellas

1. Stephen Longacre’s Greatest Match (2014)

Standalone Non-fiction

1. Violent Screen: A Critic’s 13 Years on the Front Lines of Movie Mayhem (1995)
2. Now Playing at the Valencia: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Essays on Movies (2005)
3. American Gunfight: The Plot to Kill Harry Truman–and the Shoot-out that Stopped It (2005)

Similar authors

• Dale Brown’s Patrick McLanahan follows United States’ technological race. When they neutralize the arsenal of nuclear missiles, they surpass the greatest enemy’s mastery.
• Red Phoenix by Larry Bond follows a what-if history scenario. The readers witness a well-planned North Korean attack on South Korea in the mid-1980s.

See also: Mick Herron Books in Order.

Most recommended books

1. Flight of the Intruder (Jake Grafton #1) (4.09 Goodreads score)
2. The Cannibal Queen: A Flight Into The Heart Of America (4.09 Goodreads score)
3. The Disciple (Tommy Carmellini #4) (4.07 Goodreads score)
4. America (Jake Grafton #9) (4.05 Goodreads score)
5. Final Flight (Jake Grafton #3) (4.05 Goodreads score)

Awards

Stephen Coonts was named Author of the Year by the US Naval Institute Press in 1986.

Movies based on the series

Stephen Coonts’ first novel, Flight of the Intruder, was been adapted for the big screen in 1991.

Upcoming releases

Dragon’s Jaw: An Epic Story of Courage and Tenacity in Vietnam is Coonts’ most recent book, released on May 14th, 2019.

Book summaries

Deep Black (2003)

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. With no clearance from the government it’s called on to protect, the National Security Agency goes to war. But before Lia and Dean can unravel the conspiracy, they learn that one of the spy plane’s passengers-an NSA techie-survived the crash. Critical information could fall into enemy hands. And that enemy is playing to the death.

Biowar (2004)

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.

Dark Zone (2004)

In a secluded headquarters on the other side of the globe a terrorist mission is 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. This is Charlie Dean’s world-an NSA ex-marine sniper now enlisted to stop the unthinkable. But when his suspicions of a traitor in his shadow become frighteningly true, Dean’s race against time could mean the end of the free world.

Payback (2005)

Recruited:A crack team of cover agents. 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. Engaged:A violent political coupBut things get complicated when Dean and company discover the renegade general’s second plot. The military madman’s ruse—a nuclear weapon he claims is in the hands of Marxist guerillas, a bomb that only he can rescue…and control.

Jihad (2007)

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.

Conspiracy (2008)

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. Back in the U.S., Deep Black agent Lia DeFrancesca has uncovered the trail of a killer in Dean’s path. Now, with every asset, weapon, bug and high-tech magic wand Desk Three can wave, the agents enter a terrifying global race against time. Because ghosts of the past have risen to life…to strike a death blow into the heart of the U.S.A.

Arctic Gold (2009)

In the Arctic, two American intelligence operatives are kidnapped while investigating Russian submarines—a constant, covert presence beneath the ice caps. In Washington, ex-Marine Charlie Dean and his team at Desk Three trace the abduction back to the Russian mafiya, 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.

Sea of Terror (2010)

Two massive ships are on a dual path to destruction. One is a freighter carrying nuclear materials to Japan; the other, is 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. The seized ships are crossing the Atlantic with the combined strength of a full-scale nuclear torpedo. And New York City is just on the horizon.…

Death Wave (2011)

Deep within the NSA is Desk Three, a top-secret unit of special operatives inserted into the field when the threat is great and the response demands sensitivity and invisibility. Charlie Dean, a former Marine sniper, is a senior officer. With his colleagues Lia DeFrancesca and newcomer Ilya Akulinin, they form the core of a high-tech team known as Deep Black.Off the coast of Africa lie the beautiful Canary Islands, a resort destination of millionaires. Underneath this idyllic paradise is one of the most volatile fault lines in the world. There, an alliance between radical Islamic terrorists and a rogue element of the Chinese government is planning to unleash an act of unimaginable geological terrorism that could devastate the U.S. East Coast, striking it with waves up to a thousand feet high. They plan to set off nuclear devices to precipitate a gigantic landslide that will send a death-dealing tsunami across the Atlantic.In the Central Asian Republic of Tajikistan twelve nuclear warheads, stolen by the Russian Mafia, are about to be smuggled out of the country and delivered into the hands of the conspirators. Charlie and Ilya go on an intercept mission, but before they can retrieve them, the weapons vanish.Meanwhile, in a hotel in New Jersey, a bestselling author is assassinated to prevent the release of his stranger-than-fiction story about an Islamic plot to change the course of history. Lia, Charlie’s girlfriend, is sent to Berlin to infiltrate the empire of a ruthless Chinese billionaire whose machinations have come to the attention of the NSA. She risks immediate execution if her true identity is revealed.Their paths all converge in the Canary Islands. Unless the Deep Black team intervenes, the islands could be the epicenter of an apocalypse, with millions of lives—and the entire world order—at stake.

Flight of the Intruder (1986)

In Flight of the Intruder Jake Grafton is an A-6 Intruder pilot during the Vietnam War who flies his bomber on sorties past enemy flak and SAM missiles, and then must maneuver his plane, often at night, onto the relatively small deck of an aircraft carrier. Former Navy flyer Stephen Coonts gives an excellent sense of the complexities of modern air raids and how nerve-wracking it is, even for the best airmen, to technically solve sudden problems over and over, knowing that even a twist of fate like a peasant wildly firing a rifle from a field could wipe out the crew. Grafton alternates between remorse over the fate of his unseen Vietnamese victims on the ground and a gung-ho “let’s win this war” sentiment that lashes at both policymakers who select less-than-important targets for the dangerous missions and advocates for peace back in the States.

Final Flight (1988)

The most daring — and deadly — 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. And Jake may have to disobey a direct order from the President himself for one spine-tingling, hair-raising Final Flight.

The Minotaur (1989)

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.

Under Siege (1990)

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 hit men 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.

The Red Horseman (1993)

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.

The Intruders (1994)

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. But when an unexpected enemy appears from above, Grafton and Le Beau must put aside their differences and work together to save the lives of all onboard.

Cuba (1999)

Admiral Jake Grafton is overseeing a shipment of nerve gas being transferred for a top-secret U.S. stockpile at Guantanamo Bay. But a power struggle inside Cuba has ignited an explosive plot and turned a horrific new weapon on the U.S. 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…

Hong Kong (2000)

Jake Grafton takes his wife, Callie, along when the U.S. 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. When Callie is kidnapped by a rebel faction, Jake finds himself drawn into the vortex of a high-tech civil war. Drawing on the skills of CIA operative Tommy Carmellini, in order to save his wife Jake Grafton must figure out who he can trust-both among the Western factions vying for control of the volatile situation, and among the Chinese patriots fighting for their nation’s future-and make sure the right side wins.

America (2001)

Dispatched on a trial run, NASA’s SuperAegis satellite has been created as the foundation of an international antimissle defense system. But moments after dispatch, it vanishes. 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 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.

Liberty (2003)

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.

Saucer (2002)

Stephen Coonts has earned an extraordinary worldwide reputation with his military thrillers featuring Jake Grafton, one of the most popular and recognizable characters in contemporary suspense fiction. In this exhilarating departure, Coonts takes readers on an imaginative journey into space that is as suspenseful as any of his other stories . . .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. The U.S. Air Force sends a UFO investigation team, which arrives just minutes before a team sent by an Australian billionaire to steal the saucer’s secrets. Before either side can outwit the other, the Libyan military arrives.Meanwhile, Rip has been checking out the saucer. With the help of a beautiful ex-Air Force test pilot Charley Pine, Rip flies the saucer away, embarking on a fantastic journey into space and around the world, keeping just ahead of those who want the saucer for themselves.

The Conquest (2004)

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.

Savage Planet (2014)

Aliens are coming! A year after young engineering student Rip Cantrell discovered the first flying saucer buried deep in the sands of the Sahara, another saucer is brought up from the bottom of the Atlantic. The recovery is funded by a pharmaceutical executive who believes that the saucer holds the key to an anti-aging drug formula that space travelers would need to voyage between galaxies. But one of his technicians, Adam Solo, an alien marooned on Earth for a thousand years, steals the saucer, hoping to summon a starship to rescue him. Unfortunately, the stolen saucer has damaged communications gear. Solo goes to Rip Cantrell and his partner, ex-Air Force test pilot Charlotte “Charley” Pine, and Rip’s uncle Egg, for help in summoning a starship. Meanwhile, as a terrified world fearful of space invaders approaches meltdown, big pharma moguls and their thugs are hot on the trail of the foursome.In a world turned upside down, it may be the arriving aliens who offer limitless possibilities. Rip and Charley face an incredible decision: Do they dare leave the safety of earth to travel into the great wilderness of the universe?

Liars & Thieves (2004)

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. Carmellini teams up with his mentor, Admiral Jake Grafton, and together they track down the amnesiac defector. From there, the hunt is on as they become the target of a lethal squad of killers who can only be taking direction from someone very close to the president. From a bloody ambush at a posh Virginia estate, to assassinations on the decaying streets of inner city Washington, to a makeshift safe house at Grafton’s Delaware summer home, no place is outside the ruthless conspiracy’s reach. Carmellini and Grafton must learn to tell friend from foe as they fight their way through a poisonous wilderness of intrigue, all the way to a presidential convention in New York City-and to the surprising identity of someone standing on the verge of absolute power who has jeopardized the safety of the entire nation to prevent a dark secret from ever seeing the light of day.

The Traitor (2006)

The death of a French intelligence agent on an Air France flight to Amman, Jordan, is the trigger that launches Tommy Carmellini’s latest adventure. Within the European Union, the national espionage agencies are fiercely competing for supremacy against each other, and against the CIA. When the Americans discover that the director of the French spy agency has secret investments in the Bank of Palestine, alarm bells go off. To investigate, the Americans send Jake Grafton, who has been brought back from retirement to unravel a tangle of espionage, terrorism, and murder. And of course, the man Grafton wants on the point is Tommy Carmellini. Together they uncover an elaborate strategy to infiltrate the highest levels of Al Qaeda with a top-level plant, but who is playing whom? As Carmellini delves deep undercover he finds he is running for his life. Grafton and Carmellini uncover a horrifying plan to shake the West as never before, and a catch 22: Can they stop the conspiracy without compromising the intelligence source that could bring down Al Qaeda once and for all?

The Assassin (2008)

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?

The Disciple (2009)

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. They are funneling information to Carmellini. They want to stop the attack before their leader launches a new world war. But will the U.S. government believe the information they are providing, and can the Americans prevent the Israelis from taking matters into their own hands, which could prove disastrous? Returning to the kind of military and espionage story that made Cuba one of his most successful novels, Coonts weaves an unforgettable tale of men and women at war, with the sort of dramatic military action and undercover technology for which Coonts is known.

Pirate Alley (2013)

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. But information gleaned from a captured Al Qaeda operative indicates that there is a far more dangerous conspiracy afoot. Once the ransom is paid, Islamic militants intend to swoop in and slaughter the passengers in an orgy of terror, hoping to provoke a massive American military response that will set the Muslim world aflame. Jake Grafton is assigned to negotiate with the brutal pirate chief while his right hand man, Tommy Carmellini, and a team of CIA and Navy SEAL operatives mount an undercover operation to save the hostages and keep the U.S. from being maneuvered into a murderous war.

The Art of War (2016)

The Chinese dragon is flexing its muscles. As its military begins to prey on neighbors in the South China Sea, attacking fishing vessels and scheming to seize natural resources, America goes on high alert. But a far more ominous danger lurks closer to home: A nuclear weapon has been planted in the harbor at Norfolk, Virginia—site of the biggest naval base on the planet. The target: a secret rendezvous of the Atlantic Fleet aircraft carriers and their battle groups. When the CIA director is assassinated and Jake Grafton is appointed to take his place, Jake gets wind of the conspiracy but has no idea when or where the attack will occur. Meanwhile, a series of assassinations—including an attempt on the life of the President of the United States—shakes the nation and deliberately masks a far more sinister objective. Can Jake and his right hand man, Tommy Carmellini, prevent a catastrophe far more devastating than Pearl Harbor and stop a plot to destroy the U.S. Navy?

Liberty’s Last Stand (2016)

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. Afterwards, 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…

The Armageddon File (2017)

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? Jake Grafton and Tommy Carmellini race to solve the mystery of a potentially rigged election before Americans’ full faith and credit in our democracy, sovereignty, and rule of law become completely undone.

The Russia Account (2018)

It Starts with a Murder . . . Will It End with a Coup? Stephen Coonts, master of suspense, has captivated readers around the world by writing thrillers ripped from the nation’s headlines. His newest, The Russia Account, pits CIA officer Tommy Carmellini against a murderous international financial conspiracy that leaves a trail of death and corruption, extending from a small bank in Estonia to the highest reaches of the Kremlin and the halls of Congress—perhaps even to the CIA itself, putting Admiral Jake Grafton, the head of the CIA, in the crosshairs of an assassin. 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.

Fortunes of War (1998)

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.

The Garden of Eden (2005)

As touching as it is humorous, The Garden of Eden is a parable for our time with a powerful and ultimately redemptive ending that speaks to oft underappreciated virtues such as loyalty (sticking with those you love even when they screw up royally), tolerance, and forgiveness. It’s also about the values that keep America together–the simple solutions ordinary people find to keep their small communities strong.Trooper Sam Neely is fresh out of the State Police academy and finds himself assigned to the dullest backwater town he’s never heard of. Things heat up quickly in Eden, U.S.A., however, when Ed Harris, the banker, finds his wife in bed with his best friend, Hayden Elkins. Ed picks up a shotgun, escorts them both to the door, and tells friend Hayden, “Guess what? She’s yours!” I’ve got a wife, Ed,” says Hayden.”Now you have two. . . .”Forced to take his paramour to live under his own roof (after all, they had only intended to share an afternoon of delight, not to leave their spouses), Hayden suddenly finds himself the butt of every joke in town.That’s where things start to spin out of control.Before long, Elijah Murphy, the town drunk, and the snooping widow next door, to whom he’d exposed himself, are falling in love; sleazy Sheriff’s Deputy Delmar Clay is about to get a butt-full of birdshot for the pictures he’s been snapping of young couples getting hot and heavy in parked cars; and the Barrow Boys are out of jail and looking for trouble. Soon, Neely finds that managing the crises in the sticks is a full-time job, and it takes a whole community–from the compassionate local magistrate to the new female preacher–to keep things from exploding big-city style.

The Sea Witch (2012)

Stephen Coots weaves three unforgettable tales of men and women at war with the sort of dramatic military action and undercover technology for which he is known. Included in this collection area; The Sea Witch; The 17th Day and Al-Jihad.

Clash of the Carriers: The True Story of the Marianas Turkey Shoot of World War II (2018)

In June, 1944, American and Japanese carrier fleets made their way toward one another in the Philippine Sea. Their common objective: the strategically vital Marianas Islands. During two days of brutal combat, the American and Japanese carriers dueled, launching wave after wave of fighters and bombers against one another. By day and night, hundreds of planes filled the skies. When it was over, the men of the American Fifth Fleet had claimed more than four hundred aerial combat victories, and three Japanese carriers lay on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Here is the true account of those great and terrible days—by those who were there, in the thick of the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Drawing upon numerous interviews with American and Japanese veterans as well as official sources, Clash of the Carriers is an unforgettable testimonial to the bravery of those who fought and those who died in a battle that will never be forgotten.

Dragon’s Jaw: An Epic Story of Courage and Tenacity in Vietnam (2019)

Every war has its “bridge”–Old North Bridge at Concord, Burnside’s Bridge at Antietam, the railway bridge over Burma’s River Kwai, the bridge over Germany’s Rhine River at Remagen, and the bridges over Korea’s Toko Ri. In Vietnam it was the bridge at Thanh Hoa, called Dragon’s Jaw. For seven long years hundreds of young US airmen flew sortie after sortie against North Vietnam’s formidable and strategically important bridge, dodging a heavy concentration of anti-aircraft fire and enemy MiG planes. Many American airmen were shot down, killed, or captured and taken to the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” POW camp. But after each air attack, when the smoke cleared and the debris settled, the bridge stubbornly remained standing. For the North Vietnamese it became a symbol of their invincibility; for US war planners an obsession; for US airmen a testament to American mettle and valor.

The Cannibal Queen (1992)

It was a bird’s-eye view of America—and the trip of a lifetime for author Stephen Coonts and his fourteen-year-old son. But even for Coonts, who had clocked 1,600 hours as a naval aviator and was the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross commendation, this was a first. He’d be flying closer to the earth than he ever had before. His big yellow wood-and-canvas bird was the Cannibal Queen, a Stearman open-cockpit biplane built in 1942. Destined for the scrap yard, it was rescued and restored for what Coonts would call his “Stearman summer.” On a clear June afternoon in 1991, Coonts and his son took off to see the country the same way the barnstormers flew their Jennys: with a map and a compass. Coonts followed highways, railroad lines, back roads, mountains, rivers, and landmarks. For the next three months, seeing old friends and meeting new ones, he touched down on the diverse landscapes of each of the forty-eight contiguous states to record the stories of the American countryside, its spirited people, and its rich history.

War in the Air (1996)

Presents twenty-six real-life accounts of aerial warfare, including “The Hero’s Life” by Captain Eddie V. Rickenbacker” and “The Flight of Enola Gay” by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan Witts

Point of Impact (1993)

He was one the best Marine snipers in Vietnam. Today, twenty years later, disgruntled hero of an unheroic war, all Bob Lee Swagger wants to be left alone and to leave the killing behind. But with consummate psychological skill, a shadowy military organization seduces Bob into leaving his beloved Arkansas hills for one last mission for his country, unaware until too late that the game is rigged. The assassination plot is executed to perfection—until Bob Lee Swagger, alleged lone gunman, comes out of the operation alive, the target of a nationwide manhunt, his only allies a woman he just met and a discredited FBI agent. Now Bob Lee Swagger is on the run, using his lethal skills once more—but this time to track down the men who set him up and to break a dark conspiracy aimed at the very heart of America.

Black Light (1996)

Only one thing stands between a son and his father’s killer: forty years of lies. . .On a remote Arizona ranch, a man who has known loss, fear, and war weeps for the first time since he was a child. His tears are for the father taken from him four decades before in a deadly shoot-out. And his grief will lead him back to the place where he was born, where his father died, and where a brutal conspiracy is about to explode. For Bob Lee Swagger, the world changed on that hot day in Blue Eye, Arkansas, when two local boys rode armed and wild in a ’55 Fairlane convertible. Swagger’s father, Earl, a state trooper, was investigating the brutal murder of a young woman that day. By midnight Earl Swagger lay dead in a deserted cornfield. Now Bob Lee wants answers. He wants to know the truth behind the shoot -out that took his father’s life, a mystery buried in forty years of lies. Because for Bob Lee Swagger, the killing didn’t end that day in Blue Eye, Arkansas. The killing had just begun . . .

Time to Hunt (1998)

He is the most dangerous man alive. He only wants to live in peace with his family, and forget the war that nearly killed him. . . .It’s not going to happen. During the latter days of the Vietnam War, deep in-country, a young idealistic Marine named Donny Fenn was cut down by a sniper’s bullet as he set out on patrol with Swagger, who himself received a grievous wound. Years later Swagger married Donny’s widow, Julie, and together they raise their daughter, Nikki, on a ranch in the isolated Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho. Although he struggles with the painful legacy of Vietnam, Swagger’s greatest wish—to leave his violent past behind and live quietly with his family—seems to have come true.Then one idyllic day, a man, a woman, and a girl set out from the ranch on horseback. High on a ridge above a mountain pass, a thousand yards distant, a calm, cold-eyed shooter, one of the world’s greatest marksmen, peers through a telescopic sight at the three approaching figures. Out of his tortured past, a mortal enemy has once again found Bob the Nailer. Time to Hunt proves anew why so many consider Stephen Hunter to be our best living thriller writer. With a plot that sweeps from the killing fields of Vietnam to the corridors of power in Washington to the shadowy plots of the new world order, Hunter delivers all the complex, stay-up-all-night action his fans demand in a masterful tale of family heartbreak and international intrigue—and shows why, for Bob Lee Swagger, it’s once again time to hunt.

The 47th Samurai (2007)

Bob Lee Swagger and Philip Yano are bound together by a single moment at Iwo Jima, in 1945, when their fathers, two brave fighters on opposite sides, met in the bloody and chaotic battle for the island. Only Earl Swagger survived. More than sixty years later, Yano comes to America to honor the legacy of his heroic father by recovering the sword he used in the battle. His search has led him to Crazy Horse, Idaho, where Bob Lee, ex-marine and Vietnam veteran, has settled into a restless retirement and immediately pledges himself to Yano’s quest. Bob Lee finds the sword and delivers it to Yano in Tokyo. On inspection, they discover that it is not a standard WWII blade, but a legendary shin-shinto katana, an artifact of the nation. It is priceless but worth killing for. Suddenly Bob is at the center of a series of terrible crimes he barely understands but vows to avenge. And to do so, he throws himself into the world of the samurai, Tokyo’s dark, criminal yakuza underworld, and the unwritten rules of Japanese culture. Swagger’s allies, hard-as-nails, American-born Susan Okada and the brave, cocaine-dealing tabloid journalist Nick Yamamoto, help him move through this strange, glittering, and ominous world from the shady bosses of the seamy Kabukicho district to officials in the highest echelons of the Japanese government, but in the end, he is on his own and will succeed only if he can learn that to survive samurai, you must become samurai. As the plot races and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that a ruthless conspiracy is in place, and the only thing that can be taken for granted is that money, power, and sex can drive men of all nationalities to gruesome extremes. If Swagger hopes to stop them, he must be willing not only to die but also to kill.

Night of Thunder (2008)

Talk about a ride! Woe unto he who crosses Bob Lee Swagger, especially when his daughter’s life is at stake. Forced off the road and into a crash that leaves her in a coma, clinging to life, reporter Nikki Swagger had begun to peel back the onion of a Southern-fried-conspiracy bubbling with all the angst, resentment, and dysfunction that Dixie gangsters can muster. An ancient, violent crime clan, a possibly corrupt law enforcement structure, gunmen of all stripes and shapes, and deranged evangelicals rear their ugly heads and will live to rue the day they targeted the wrong man’s daughter. It’s what you call your big-time bad career move. All of it is set against the backdrop of excitement and insanity that only a weeklong NASCAR event can bring to the backwoods of a town as seemingly sleepy as Bristol, Tennessee. A master at the top of his game, Hunter provides a host of thrilling new reasons to read as fast as we can. When Swagger picks up peeling where his daughter left off, and his swift sword of justice is let loose, we find a true American hero in his most stunning action to date. And—in the form of Brother Richard, a self-decreed “Sinnerman” out of the old fire-and-brimstone tradition.

I, Sniper (2009)

It takes a seasoned killer…Four famed ‘60s radicals are gunned down at long range by a sniper. All the evidence—timeline, ballistics, forensics, motive, means, and opportunity—points to Marine war hero Carl Hitchcock. Even his suicide. The case is almost too perfect.…to hunt one. Recruited by the FBI to examine the data, retired Marine sharpshooter Bob Lee Swagger penetrates the new technology of the secretive sniper world to unravel a sophisticated conspiracy run by his most ruthless adversary yet—a marksman whose keen intellect and pinpoint accuracy rival his own. But when the enemy and his deadly henchmen mistake Bob for the hunted, it’s clear that some situations call for a good man with a gun…and the guts to use it.

Dead Zero (2010)

A marine sniper team on a mission in tribal territories on the Afghan-Pakistan border, Whiskey 2-2 is ambushed by professionals using the latest high-tech shooting gear. Badly wounded, the team’s sole survivor, Gunnery Sergeant Ray Cruz, aka “the Cruise Missile,” is determined to finish his job. He almost succeeds when a mystery blast terminates his enterprise, leaving a thirty-foot crater where a building used to be—and where Sergeant Cruz was meant to be hiding. Months pass. Ray’s target, an Afghan warlord named Ibrahim Zarzi, sometimes called “The Beheader,” becomes an American asset in the region and beyond, beloved by State, the Administration, and the Agency. He arrives in Washington for consecration as Our Man in Kabul. And that brings Ray Cruz out of hiding. Swagger, the legendary hero of seven of Hunter’s novels from Point of Impact to last year’s bestselling I, Sniper, is recruited by the FBI to stop the Cruise Missile from reaching his target. The problem is that the more Swagger learns about what happened in Zabol, the more he questions the US government’s support of Zarzi and the more he identifies with Cruz as hunter instead of prey.

The Third Bullet (2013)

It’s not even a clue. It’s a whisper, a trace, a ghost echo, drifting down through the decades via chance connections so fragile that they would disintegrate in the puff of a breath. But it’s enough to get legendary former Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger interested in the events of November 22, 1963, and the third bullet that so decisively ended the life of John F. Kennedy and set the stage for one of the most enduring controversies of our time. Swagger begins his slow night stalk through a much-traveled landscape. But he’s asking questions that few have asked before: Why did the third bullet explode? Why did Lee Harvey Oswald, about to become the most hunted man on Earth, risk it all by returning to his rooming house to secure a pistol he easily could have brought with him? How could a conspiracy that went unpenetrated for 50 years have been thrown together in the two and a half days between the announcement of the president’s route and the assassination itself? As Bob investigates, another voice enters the narrative: knowing, ironic, almost familiar, that of a gifted, Yale-educated veteran of the CIA Plans Division. Hugh Meachum has secrets and the means and the will to keep them buried. When weighed against his own legacy, Swagger’s life is an insignificant expense – but to blunt the threat, he’ll first have to ambush the sniper.

Sniper’s Honor (2014)

Ludmilla “Mili” Petrova was once the most hunted woman on earth, having raised the fury of two of the most powerful leaders on either side of World War II: Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. But Kathy Reilly of The Washington Post doesn’t know any of that when she encounters a brief mention of Mili in an old Russian propaganda magazine, and becomes interested in the story of a legendary, beautiful female sniper who seems to have vanished from history. Reilly enlists former marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger to parse out the scarce details of Mili’s military service. The more Swagger learns about Mili’s last mission, the more he’s convinced her disappearance was no accident—but why would the Russian government go to such lengths to erase the existence of one of their own decorated soldiers? And why, when Swagger joins Kathy Reilly on a research trip, is someone trying to kill them before they can find out?

G-Man (2017)

The Great Depression was marked by an epidemic of bank robberies and Tommy-gun-toting outlaws who became household names. Hunting them down was the new U.S. Division of Investigation–soon to become the FBI–which was determined to nab the most dangerous gangster this country has ever produced: Baby Face Nelson. To stop him, the Bureau recruited talented gunman Charles Swagger, World War I hero and sheriff of Polk County, Arkansas. Eighty years later, Charles’s grandson Bob Lee Swagger uncovers a strongbox containing an array of memorabilia dating back to 1934–a federal lawman’s badge, a .45 automatic preserved in cosmoline, a mysterious gun part, and a cryptic diagram–all belonging to Charles Swagger. Bob becomes determined to find out what happened to his grandfather– and why his own father never spoke of Charles. But as he investigates, Bob learns that someone is following him–and shares his obsession.

Game of Snipers (2019)

When Bob Lee Swagger is approached by a woman who lost a son to war and has spent the years since risking all that she has to find the sniper who pulled the trigger, he knows right away he’ll do everything in his power to help her. But what begins as a favor becomes an obsession, and soon Swagger is back in the action, teaming up with the Mossad, the FBI, and local American law enforcement as he tracks a sniper who is his own equal…and attempts to decipher that assassin’s ultimate target before it’s too late.

Targeted (2022)

After his successful takedown of a dangerous terrorist, Bob Lee Swagger learns that no good deed goes unpunished. Summoned to court by the United States Congress, Swagger is accused of reckless endangerment by a hardheaded anti-gun congresswoman. But what begins as political posturing soon turns deadly when the auditorium where the committee is being held is attacked. Swagger, the congresswoman, and numerous bystanders and reporters are taken hostage by a group of violent operatives. Soon, the very people who had accused him are depending on him to save their lives. Trapped in the auditorium and still struggling with injuries from his last assignment, Swagger must rely on his instincts, his shooting skills, and the help of a mysterious rogue sniper on the outside in order to ensure that everyone makes it out alive.

Hot Springs (2000)

Earl Swagger is tough as hell. But even tough guys have their secrets. Plagued by the memory of his abusive father, and apprehensive about his own impending parenthood, Earl is a decorated ex-Marine of absolute integrity—and overwhelming melancholy. Now he’s about to face his biggest, bloodiest challenge yet.It is the summer of 1946, organized crime’s garish golden age, when American justice seems to have gone to seed for good. Nowhere is this truer than in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the reigning capital of corruption. When the district attorney vows to bring down the mob, Earl is recruited to run the show. As casino raids erupt into nerve-shattering combat amid screaming prostitutes and fleeing johns, the body count mounts—along with the suspense

Pale Horse Coming (2001)

The time is 1951. A smooth-talking Chicago lawyer comes to chat with Sam Vincent, the former prosecutor of Polk County, Arkansas, about a dangerous subject—a big prison for violent black convicts near Thebes, Mississippi, up the Yaxahatchee River from Pasagoula. Thebes seems to have dropped out of the Union—letters and phone calls go unanswered, and the lawyer has questions that need answers. Would Sam—an ex-lawman, a white man and a Southerner—agree to go up there and find out what he can? The ex-prosecutor takes on the job, but first he goes to see his old friend Earl Swagger, and tells him that if he isn’t back in a week, Earl is to come looking for him. When Sam vanishes into the mists and swamps around Thebes, Mississippi, Earl packs his gun, explains to a distraught Junie that duty is the duty and a promise is a promise, and sets off for Thebes, Mississippi to track his friend down. Soon enough, Earl—who approaches Thebes and its sinister prison with the stealth of a good Marine on a recon mission—realizes that something very strange indeed is going on there, that the prison is more than just a place that chills the blood of even the most hardened convict, that in fact the whole town of Thebes is hiding a secret—and it’s a place where people disappear all too easily, particularly inquisitive strangers, for whom burial in the swamps follows torture.

Havana (2003)

Cuba 1953: The island is on fire. The Mafia-run casinos are rolling, and it’s just a 30-minute flight from Miami to a world of vice, gambling, sex, and drugs. The money is there for anyone who knows how to get it, including the Cuban government and the police, who want to keep their ally Uncle Sam happy. There’s only one threat to this corrupt utopia: a silver-tongued, daring young revolutionary named Fidel Castro. With the Cold War underway, the Soviet Union has sent a sophisticated veteran agent to find and support the young upstart. To counter, the CIA has summoned Medal of Honor-winning ex-marine Sergeant Earl Swagger, whose heroic exploits have earned him the reputation of a man who doesn’t know how to lose. But he’s not just going to find Castro…He’s going to kill him.

Dead Zero (2010)

A marine sniper team on a mission in tribal territories on the Afghan-Pakistan border, Whiskey 2-2 is ambushed by professionals using the latest high-tech shooting gear. Badly wounded, the team’s sole survivor, Gunnery Sergeant Ray Cruz, aka “the Cruise Missile,” is determined to finish his job. He almost succeeds when a mystery blast terminates his enterprise, leaving a thirty-foot crater where a building used to be—and where Sergeant Cruz was meant to be hiding. Months pass. Ray’s target, an Afghan warlord named Ibrahim Zarzi, sometimes called “The Beheader,” becomes an American asset in the region and beyond, beloved by State, the Administration, and the Agency. He arrives in Washington for consecration as Our Man in Kabul. And that brings Ray Cruz out of hiding.

Soft Target (2011)

Ten thousand people jam the aisles, the corridors, the elevators, and the escalators of America, the Mall—a giant Rubik’s Cube of a structure with its own amusement park located in the spacious center atrium. Of those people, 9,988 have come to shop. The other twelve have come to kill. Ray Cruz, one of the heroes of Hunter’s last bestseller, Dead Zero, is in the mall with his fiancée and her family. The retired Marine sniper thought he was done with stalking and killing—but among the trapped thousands, he’s the only one with a plan and the guts to confront the self-proclaimed “Brigade Mumbai.” Now all he needs is a gun.

The Master Sniper (1980)

In the death throes of World War II, one man is still at war, and he’s got got the world’s deadliest weapon in his hands . . . With a sniper’s rifle, he has calmly executed hundreds of enemy soldiers in a single battle, and gunned down thousands of innocent civilians in a single day, waiting patiently for the barrel of his gun to cool before resuming his craft . . . It is the spring of 1945. And Repp, the master sniper, is about to carry out his final mission—even as Germay’s enemies overrun it, even while a tired, disorganized team of American and British agents tries everything in its power to stop him. Because for Repp, this is the one job at which he cannot fail. For this time, he possesses the ultimate killing tool. And with it, he will commit the ultimate crime. . . .

The Second Saladin (1982)

A second chance…In the windswept sands of the Middle East, Paul Chardy fought side by side with Ulu Beg: one, a charismatic, high-strung CIA covert warrior, the other a ferocious freedom fighter. Then Chardy fell into the hands of the enemy, and Beg was betrayed. Now the two men are about to meet again. A second gun…Beg has come over the Mexican border under a hail of bullets–determined to assassinate a leading American political figure and avenge his people’s betrayal. The CIA wants Chardy to stop the hit. Chardy wants to save Beg’s life. Between the two men are a tragic past, a failed mission, and a woman who knew them in war–and who knows their secrets now. Around both men is a conspiracy of lies and violence that reaches back to the Cold War. But as Beg moves in for his kill and as Chardy breaks loose from his handlers, a terrible truth begins to emerge: somewhere, someone wants both men to die.

The Spanish Gambit (1985)

Against the bloody backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, Robert Florry and his beautiful lover Sylvia must capture and bring to justice his former best friend Julian Rainese now a Russian spy.

The Day Before Midnight, (1989)

The countdown begins when welder Jack Hummel is abducted from his suburban Maryland home ans whisked to the South Mountain MX missile site—a top-secret nuclear complex now taken over by paramilitary terrorists. All that stands between the Uzi-armed commandos and the launch button is a half-ton titanium block. They want Jack Hummel to cut through it—so they can unleash a devastatingly brilliant plot that threatens global disaster. Now a Delta Force veteran and a think-tank defense wizard must get inside South Mountain—by defeating their own super-security systems and a darkly ingenious enemy leader . . . . . . while Jack Hummel’s torch burns closer and closer to the launch key… while the clock ticks closer to midnight—and Armageddon.

Dirty White Boys (1994)

They busted out of McAlester State Penitentiary–three escaped convicts going to ground in a world unprepared for anything like them…Lamar Pye is prince of the Dirty White Boys. With a lion in his soul, he roars–for he is the meanest, deadliest animal on the loose…Odell is Lamar’s cousin, a hulking manchild with unfeeling eyes. He lives for daddy Lamar. Surely he will die for him…Richard’s survival hangs on a sketch: a crude drawing of a lion and a half-naked woman. For this Lamar has let Richard live…Armed to the teeth, Lamar and his boys have cut a path of terror across the Southwest, and pushed one good cop into a crisis of honor and conscience. Trooper Bud Pewtie should have died once at Lamar’s hands. Now they’re about to meet again. And this time, only one of them will walk away…

I, Ripper (2015)

In the fall of 1888, Jack the Ripper slaughtered five prostitutes in London’s seamy Whitechapel District. He did not just kill—he ripped with a butcher’s glee—and then, after the particularly gruesome slaying of Mary Jane Kelly, he disappeared. For 127 years, Jack has haunted the dark corners of our imagination, the paradigm of the psychotic killer. We remember him not only for his crimes, but because, despite one of the biggest dragnets in London history, he was never caught.I, Ripper is a vivid reimagining of Jack’s personal story entwined with that of an Irish journalist who covered the case, knew the principals, charted the investigation, and at last, stymied, went off in a bold new direction. These two men stalk each other through a city twisted in fear of the madman’s blade, a cat-and-mouse game that brings to life the sounds and smells of the fleshpot tenderloin of Whitechapel and all the lurid acts that fueled the Ripper headlines.

Basil’s War (2021)

Basil St. Florian is an accomplished agent in the British Army, tasked with dozens of dangerous missions for crown and country across the globe. But his current mission, going undercover in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, might be his toughest assignment yet. He will be searching for an ecclesiastic manuscript that doesn’t officially exist, one that genius professor Alan Turing believes may hold the key to a code that could prevent the death of millions and possibly even end the war. St. Florian isn’t the classic British special agent with a stiff upper lip—he is a swashbuckling, whisky-drinking cynic and thrill-seeker who resents having to leave Vivien Leigh’s bed to set out on his crucial mission. Despite these proclivities, though, Basil’s Army superiors know he’s the best man for the job, carrying out his espionage with enough charm and quick wit to make any of his subjects lower their guards.

Stephen Longacre’s Greatest Match (2014)

Stephen Longacre, good-for-nothing playboy, is given an ultimatum by his wealthy father. Unless he rises to a certain challenge, his father will disconnect him from his world, and that includes paying for his lavish lifestyle. Longacre finally takes his life seriously as he finds his voice in a turbulent time, filled with hatred and violence.

Violent Screen: A Critic’s 13 Years on the Front Lines of Movie Mayhem (1995)

Baltimore Sun film critic Stephen Hunter is an unrivaled master of his craft. This extraordinary collection includes the best of Hunter’s movie reviews, taking aim at one hundred of the most important (or notorious) violent films released since 1982. With an incisive, machine-gun style of writing, Hunter pulls no punches when he bashes Blue Velvet, Tombstone, and Legends of the Fall. And he doesn’t hold back in his praise of The Wild Bunch, Goodfellas, and Reservoir Dogs. Commenting on movies and society, Tarantino, Stone, and Peckinpah, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sly Stallone, and Glenn Close, Hunter cuts right to the bone in exposing our flaws, fantasies, and flat-out love affair with blood and gore. His reviews are classics, and this collection is like a straight shot of pure adrenaline—an electrifying jolt of truth and insight no moviegoer can ignore.

Now Playing at the Valencia: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Essays on Movies (2005)

Evanston, Illinois, was an idyllic 1950s paradise with stately homes, a beautiful lake, a world-class university, two premier movie houses, and one very seedy movie theater—the Valencia. This was the site of Washington Post film critic Stephen Hunter’s misspent youth. Instead of going to school, picking up girls, or tossing a football, Hunter could be found sitting in the fifteenth row, right-hand aisle seat of the Valencia, sating himself on one B-list movie after another. The Valencia had a sticky floor, smelly bathrooms, ancient popcorn, and a screen set in a hideously tacky papier-mache castle wall. It was also the only place in town to see westerns, sci-fi pictures, cops ‘n’ robbers flicks, slapstick comedies, and Godzilla.

American Gunfight: The Plot to Kill Harry Truman–and the Shoot-out that Stopped It (2005)

It begins on November 1, 1950, an unseasonably hot afternoon in the sleepy capital. At 2:00 P.M. in his temporary residence at Blair House, the president of the United States takes a nap. At 2:20 P.M., two men approach Blair House from different directions. Oscar Collazo, a respected metal polisher and family man, and Griselio Torresola, an unemployed salesman, don’t look dangerous, not in their new suits and hats, not in their calm, purposeful demeanor, not in their slow, unexcited approach. What the three White House policemen and one Secret Service agent cannot guess is that under each man’s coat is a 9mm automatic pistol and in each head, a dream of assassin’s glory. At point-blank range, Collazo and then Torresola draw and fire and move toward the president of the United States.