Product Description

The death of a French intelligence agent on an Air France flight to Amman, Jordan, is the trigger for 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?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #187109 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-13
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

About the Author
Stephen Coonts is a veteran naval aviator who flew combat missions during the Vietnam War. His previous novels have been worldwide bestsellers. A former attorney, he lives with his family in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Customer Reviews

Really very good......
The first genuine Coonts for some time, the cloned ones don't count. This reprises the characters of Tommy Carmellini and Jake Grafton (lamely 'brought out of retirement') in a highly feasible tale of an attempt by Al Qaeda to assassinate all of the world leaders present at the recent G8 summit. Superbly written in both third person and first person from Carmellini's point of view. Really very good, keeps you interested.

Unsatisfyingly Implausible
Traitor is the latest in Stephen Coonts' on-going series of book starring Jake Grafton that started with Flight of the Intruder, set back during the Vietnam War. With Traitor set today that means that Grafton, by now a retired Admiral, is well into his fifties as the book opens.

Sensibly therefore, Coonts' has reenlisted the help of Tommy Carmellini, on-time thief turned intelligence agent, to whom he gave a more prominent role in his last book. Obviously realising that Grafton is now too old to be getting involved in much physical action, Coonts uses Carmellini as a surrogate to the Admiral when running, jumping or fighting is required. Grafton meanwhile remains the brains of the operation, directing the troops as the plot develops. This set-up works well, and the two leads play nicely off each other, ably supported by minor characters including Callie Grafton, Jake's wife.

Its therefore a pity that such clever use of characters to maintain a series are tied to a plot that doesn't quite past muster. Its not terrible; there are the prerequisite twists and turns and crosses and double-crosses that you would expect from an espionage thriller. There is also a nicely old-fashioned feel to events, with not to much deus ex machina reliance on whizz bang technology to save the day. Overall however, the central story doesn't really satisfy.

Its hard to explain why this is the case without revealing plot twists, but suffice to say the the motivation of the titular 'Traitor' simply doesn't feel believable. Coonts tries to provide background details to justify the person's actions but they don't ever ring true. Furthermore it is impossible to believe that the individual in question could ever have acted in the way they had for so long without discovery.

Together these are flaws in the plot undermine the rest of what is essentially an enjoyable book and left this reader feeling dissatisfied by the end. So, its a welcome return for the Jake and Tommy double act. Its just a pity that they aren't bettered served by a story worthy of their collective talents.

Tedious
Sadly this is another case of a author with talent not delivering. I really enjoyed his earlier books, but the characters have run their course. Here we have Admiral Grafton as a security chief for the US in Paris supported by cheerful thief Carmellini. The pair try to sort out who the bad guys are in time to prevent an attack on a G8 summit held in Paris. My main issue is that there is little tension and it is (sadly) more then a little boring.
Like many current authors, Coonts needs to ditch his stock of characters and invent some new ones and get back to writing the thrillers we know he can deliver.