Stephen Coonts’ The Red Horseman (1993)

“And there went out another horseman that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take piece from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given to him a great sword.”  
Revelations 6:4
Stephen Coonts' The Red Horseman
When Clive Cussler said, “Nobody does it better than Stephen Coonts”, he meant it, and The Red Horseman substantiates this claim.

The fifth installment of the Jake Grafton series, the novel pits our hero in a race against time to retrieve stolen nuclear arsenal. However, it becomes complicated when rogue agents in his own government are hell-bent on making sure he fails.

Throw in a couple of greedy Russian generals and a cruel, sadistic dictator and you’ve got a storyline that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Personally, I had some difficulty grasping the story toward the ending especially his description of dog fights and aviation terminology including the names of fighter planes. Thankfully, it was a brief part of the chapter or else I could have stopped right there.

It is understandable that Coonts would go quite detailed when the fight goes to the air considering he was a pilot in the US Navy and was on active duty from 1971 – 1973 flying A-6 Intruder bombers in Vietnam and Laos.

Again, it is shameful for me to admit, but this is the first of Coonts’ Grafton series that I have read and I don’t have a deeper history of Grafton or the Toad-man. However, the author gives us enough backstory to want to make you continue despite the shortfalls.

The ending is intriguing as Coonts deals with the fictional death of a dictator who recently found his demise in the streets at the hands of angry mob.

Anyway, if I have piqued your interest in this book then you should probably head down to your nearest bookshop or if you don’t have the time then ordering from Amazon could make things easier.

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