Stephen Coonts

Stephen Coonts (born July 19, 1946) is an American thriller and suspense novelist.

Coonts grew up in Buckhannon, West Virginia, a small coal-mining town [1] and earned an B.A. degree in political science at West Virginia University in 1968. He entered the Navy the following year 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). He accumulated 1600 hours in the A-6 Intruder and earned a number of Navy commendations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross. (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, Coonts pursued a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree at the University of Colorado, graduating in 1979. 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.

Today Coonts continues to write, having had seventeen New York Times bestsellers (out of 20 books). He lives in Las Vegas with his wife and son, Brandon.

Bibliography

Jake Grafton Series

Note: The list below represents Stephen Coonts' suggested reading order.

1. Flight of the Intruder (1986), ISBN 0870212001 (filmed in 1991)
2. The Intruders (1994), ISBN 1591141281
3. Final Flight (1988), ISBN 0385245556
4. The Minotaur (1989), ISBN 0440207428
5. Under Siege (1990), ISBN 0671722298
6. The Red Horseman (1993), ISBN 0671748874
7. Cuba (1999), ISBN 031220521X
8. Hong Kong (2000), ISBN 0312253397
9. America (2001), ISBN 0312253419
10. Liberty (2003), ISBN 031228361X

Tommy Carmellini Series

Note: The list below represents Stephen Coonts' suggested reading order.

1. Liars and Thieves (aka Wages of Sin) (2004), ISBN 0312283628
2. The Traitor (2006), ISBN 031232359X
3. The Assassin (2008), ISBN 9780752868691
4. The Disciple (2009), ISBN 978-0-312-37283-5

Note: Tommy Carmellini also appears in the Jake Grafton novels Cuba, Hong Kong, America and Liberty

Saucer Series

1. Saucer (2002)
2. Saucer: The Conquest (2004)

Deep Black Series

Deep Black Series with Jim DeFelice

1. Deep Black (2003)
2. Biowar (2004)
3. Dark Zone (2004)
4. Payback (2005)
5. Jihad (2007)
6. Conspiracy (2008)

Deep Black Series with William H. Keith

7. Arctic Gold (2009)
8. Sea of Terror (2010)
9. Death Wave (2011)

Others

• Fortunes of War (1998), ISBN 0312185839, ISBN 0312969414
• The Garden of Eden (2006) (writing as Eve Adams)
• The Sea Witch (May 2012), ISBN 0765332310, ISBN 978-0765332318

As editor

• The 17th Day (1999)
• Combat (2001)
• Victory (2003)

Non-Fiction

• The Cannibal Queen: A Flight into the Heart of America (1992), ISBN 067174884X
• War In The Air: True Accounts (1996), ISBN 0671881906
• On Glorious Wings: The Best Flying Stories (2003), ISBN 0312877242
• Victory (2003), ISBN 0312874626

External links

• Official site
• Interview at the Pritzker Military Library
• Stephen Coonts audio interview with National Review Online
• Stephen Coonts at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database