06/24/2019

Bestseller Coonts uneasily mixes classic thriller action and partisan axe-grinding in his ninth thriller featuring CIA director Jake Grafton and Jake’s stalwart aide, Tommy Carmellini (after 2017’s Armageddon File). When Jake learns that a tiny bank in Estonia has been laundering money, possibly hundreds of billions of dollars, he sends Tommy to investigate. Tommy gets on the trail of Russian multibillionaire Yegan Korjev, a Putin crony, whom Jake approves for rendition to a safe house in Utah for interrogation. The money-laundering operation they uncover ensnares politicians, philanthropists, investors, and criminals in a complex plan to destabilize Western society with “imaginary money.” Coonts is on sure ground when handling assassination attempts, shoot-outs, plane attacks, and investigative field work, and Tommy’s world-weary persona shines, but the long rants against community organizer Saul Alinsky and the evils of liberalism will have less conservative readers skimming the pages for a return to the action. Longtime Coonts fans who share his political leanings will best appreciate this outing. Agent: Deborah C. Grosvenor, Grosvenor Literary. (Aug.)

A crooked secretary of state plotting to be president, a dossier designed to smear her opponent, shady uranium sales to Russia, demands for impeachment, corrupt government officials, and a diabolical conspiracy to destroy America. Stephen Coonts has taken the threads of our present-day scandal and woven a dazzling novel of suspense. He is the master of thrillers.

Stephen Coonts’ newest thriller, The Russia Account, reads like ‘the story behind the story’ in our daily headlines. If you wonder how Moscow’s ‘black-ops’ threaten American democracy, read this book. Just don’t start reading it in bed. You will surely lose a good night’s sleep.