Under Siege

Jake Grafton #5

by Stephen Coonts

When the kingpin of the Medellin drug cartel is extradited to Washington, D.C. to start trial, President George Bush is severely wounded by a hired assassin. Vice President Dan Quayle assumes the responsibility for directing the fight against a criminal army that now rules the streets.

Captain Jake Grafton, working for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the battle to regain control of our nation's capital, faces the dual threat of a determined assassin and an equally determined, vicious drug lord--both intent on plunging the United States into chaos.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Military Fiction, Espionage, Adventure, Action, Suspense

408 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1990

About the author

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 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. After the war he served as a flight instructor on A-6 aircraft for two years, then did a tour as an assistant catapult and arresting gear officer aboard USS Nimitz (CVN-68). 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 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 an oil and gas lawyer for several companies, entertaining his writing interests in his free time.

He published short stories in a number of publications before writing Flight of the Intruder in 1986 (made into a movie in 1991). Intruder, based in part on his experiences as a bomber pilot, spent 28 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists in hardcover and launched his career as a novelist. From there he continued writing adventure-mysteries using the character from his first book, Jake Grafton. He has written several other series and stand-alone novels since then, but is most notable for the Grafton books.

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

Taken from Wikipedia

Learn more about Stephen Coonts on the Macmillan website.

Reviews

[Daniel Bratell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some things Stephen Coonts do well, some things he does less well. As Jake Grafton, the red thread in the Jake Grafton novels (doh!), moves up the chain of command the books end up more in higher level, political, situations, and Coonts' political authoring is not up to the standards of his action, military or thriller writings.

This book is about Washington DC's drug problem and interaction with Colombian drug lords. It's possible that the book has aged badly, but it doesn't seem to be a good fit to reality.

This book moved away from Jake Grafton even more and focused on 3 other characters: A Washington Post writer, an undercover police and a rented assassin. Their character portraits are not terrible but you read a Jake Grafton book to follow Jake Grafton. Now he just becomes a fringe character which adds very little, or nothing, to the story.

At a few places in previous books, and in many places in this book, Coonts let characters do political rants. I don't know if they reflect the authors own views or anti-views but they become tiring, both the serious ones and the ones seemingly intended to make the readers think a character is ridiculous.

I don't know if I will keep reading the series after this one. Maybe give it one more shot? If the review score is higher on the next book - maybe...

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot going on in this book. This book is from the 90s, when the War On Drugs was really a thing. It's very much a book of its time. The US military helped to extradite a Colombian drug lord (Chano Aldana), and they're putting him on trial in Washington DC. Aldana has a whole army of narcoterrorists who lay seige to Washington DC in response, including suicide squads and attempts on the President's life.

In return, the US army institutes martial law and shuts down DC. Jake Grafton and his faithful sidekick Toad are working in the Pentagon as part of some drug task force, so of course they're thrown into the action. Harrison Ronald Ford (I swear that's his real name) is an undercover cop embedded in with Freeman McNally's crack dealership operation. And there are other plots too.

If you sit and think about it, 20 years later, this book is nuts - DC turned into a war zone and Al Qaeda/ISIS nowhere to be found. The Henry Charon plot is outstanding, and gets this book a 4-star rating, even if there's probably too much going on elsewhere.

[Rick Gerein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Nicely developed with depth to the character’s story’s. Finish was a bit of a fizzle though.

[Barbara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dated potboiler. Waste of time.

[Alec · Rating 4 out of 5]

What started as a series focused on flying contained no flying sequences in this, the fifth installment. Realizing that odd fact made me pause and consider what the series had become. In effect, the series hasn't really been about flying as much as it's been about the pilot at the center of the those flying sequences, Jake Grafton. He is the central character as well as the force that guides those that enter each story.

One of the things I liked about this book was the rich character development throughout the story, with only one of the players coming across as more a caricature than an actual individual. It felt like there were a few different threads running parallel for most of the book each driven by a different person. Mr. Coonts did a really nice job filling these narratives in with motivations, emotion, and compelling action while also bringing each of the threads together in the end to tie the book off nicely.

It's easy to imagine myself reading this book closer to when it was published and thinking, "something like that would never happen." Living in the world we live in today, unfortunately, makes some of the incidents in the book all too real.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the plot and found the characters interesting. I might have given this another star except for one problem: The author (or the editor? the publisher?) made a choice to let multiple threads run on, one after another, without any kind of break. I found this very confusing, as I had to read on for another sentence or two (sometimes longer) before I realized that the author had switched to another character in another place. Most authors would have inserted a break - A new chapter, a heading, or a larger space - to let the reader know we had switched topics. This author chose not to do so, to the detriment of the reader's experience. By the way, I would not exactly call this "A Jake Grafton" book, as he played a fairly minor role in the story.

[Seth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story I liked so much, that I read it twice. This book ponders the difficult question of what would happen if America arrested a columbian cartel leader inside a hostile nation and brought him back to America for trial. The drug lord has millions of dollars at his disposal and it only requires about 50grand a pop to buy off poor villagers from the old country to come to america and sacrafice their lives in terror attacks. With two or three attacks being executed on Washington DC every day for a month, how can the fabric of our great nation hold itself together?
This is a primarily cartoon Jake Grafton novel that leaves you pondering some big questions.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though this book is advertised as being a Jake Grafton novel, Jake Grafton only makes what one could describe as a guest appearance.

This book was interesting, though very hard to follow, there seemed to be several storylines that were being played out none which played into the other. New characters seemed to be introduced periodically and never developed.

I had a hard time following which characters went with which storyline.

Overall a good read, I did enjoy it, though not as much as some previous Stephen Coonts - Jake Grafton novels.

[Jeff Crosby · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are times when I really enjoy Coonts. However, I have been somewhat selective, despite liking the characters in the Jake Grafton books. I have avoided Under Siege for many years because it didn't sound interesting. I wish I had continued to avoid it.

This book is a lame mash-up of political thriller, terrorists, drug lords and pushers,assasination, and the kitchen sink. I almost stopped twice because of the excessive profanity (unusually high for Coonts), but like a moth drawn to a flame, I kept thinking it would improve. It didn't.

[Charles Vrooman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Under Siege was truly a thriller. The characters seemed somewhat real, but the author went overboard to make them fit their roles. Also, the author spent a lot of time dealing with the drug problems we have in the world. Then, he threw in political problems to create a very complex book. The story became hard to follow with its multifaceted characters and their troubles. All in all, the author did try to tie everything together with an unusual ending.

[Erth · Rating 4 out of 5]

now i am hooked. This was such a great, easy and creative book. i was hooked after the first page.

The characters were easy to fall in love with and follow, along with the story. the author made the mental visions so easy and vivid of the surroundings and the characters actions felt so real.

i would highly recommend this author and this book.

[brian dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange part of the Grafton series - this is more of a drugs-in-America story than a military thriller. I enjoyed it, but Grafton's role is diminished - the real hero of the story seemed to be Harrison Ford (no relation).

[Tulay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written, but.

Colombian drug lord apprehended and brought to trial. Cuban revolution and Castro is killed. In this mix even hired killer, several key politicians, Judges and power brokers killed. Attempt on President Bush and his Vice president Quayle.

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

way over-written, and over the top drama. unrealistic dystopia

[Eva Tipps · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am fascinated to think that some people lead the kind of life depicted in novels such as this one. Some really smart people. Some really evil ones. What made me want to read this was that an assassin was planning not one or two but five (!) assassinations. I was hoping it would read like Three Days of the Condor. It did a little, but the genius of planning was overwhelmed with seriously disturbing violence (at least to me) and quite a bit of gratuitous sex.''

One thing drove me crazy frustrated, though, and that was Coonts didn't settle on one or even two names for one of the main characters. Harrison Ronald Ford was called Harrison, Harrison Ronald, Harrison Ford, Ford-- oh! And his nickname was Sammy Z!...and as an almost 70 year old, this really confused me. I ended up getting through the novel by writing down the name of each character when they appeared and why they were in the story so I could refer to it and get back my bearings.

On the other hand, I read this FAST because I wanted to know what happens next. I haven't had a story like that in a long time.

One final note: This novel is copyrighted 1990. It is like government has not changed in almost 35 years!! It was easy to relate to the shutdowns. It was easy to imagine that deploying the National Guard would upset American citizens. It's sadly easy to recognize that drugs are prevalent in our society. IF I were to recommend this novel, it's because of the fast read and because unfortunately the story still rings true today.

[John Teske · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable read. I have been to Washington DC a number of times, and it was fun to have a novel set in DC and written in an era with which I was familiar.

That being said, there are some things that don't translate well into today's culture, and at other points, there are things that foreshadowed the culture of the 2020's.

It was still a page-turner the last 100 pages that kept me awake late into the night.

For a Jake Grafton novel, he is not much of a main character, as others have pointed out.

I am unsure if I will read more of this series. It was a gift from a relative, and entertaining. THe characters were portrayed well, and I got a good feeling for the setting. The disparate threads were brought together in the second half of the book, and as I said, it was entertaining.

[Cynthia · Rating 1 out of 5]

What an absurd storyline. I have read the previous Jake Grafton books, and thought them good enough to continue to read, but this one stops me from doing so.

The author rewrote history twice: Attempted assassination of Bush, causing him to be hospitalized after his helicopter is shot down--what? The helicopter didn't have that stuff they deploy to prevent such an occurrence? And, the author had Castro hung. By the way, Castro died of "old age" at 90-something.

Also, the mob that storms the the Armory hangs hundreds of prisoners!!! Yes, they did!!! Where they got all that rope is anyone's guess, since the author did not describe the mob as arriving with any such gear on them.

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grabbed this book off my Dad's bookshelf before he gave them all away. I started to read it and then realized it was book 5 in the series, so I went back and read all the previous books. I've enjoyed all of them, but I do think this was the best. Stephen Coonts has no problem taking circumstances to an extreme. I get used to stories narrowly averting catastrophes, but catastrophes are becoming commonplace in these books. I plan to continue reading this series... and I do mean reading. I haven't found audio versions of any of these books.

[Doris Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a pretty good read, even though it is heavy with political plots, political characters, physical fights and numerous murders. The main hero, Jake Grafton, was almost non-existent, I didn't even realize he was the hero until the end of the book.
Most of the story seemed insightful and accurate, reflecting our political situations today. I unfairly gave it a three instead of a four because I am disgusted with most of our current undemocratic tyrannical politicians who ignore big problems and instead focus on their intentional fraudulent divisions. It's a fast-moving good read with lots of action.

[Terry Retter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this book is confusing. There are several stories running in parallel that do not seem to have any connection to the others, They wind along until there is something there but it takes a while to figure out how things are going to come together.

The second half seems to be an editorial about drugs in america and how it effects social, political and other things. The pieces do finally get pushed together (mainly so the book can end) somewhat haphazardly.

Not his best effort.

[Hijacking Of · Rating 4 out of 5]

Under Siege was, at times, convoluted. There were several sub-plots all running at the same time. The dynmaics between Tarkington and Grafton are wonderful. Stephen Coonts could easily write a book on "Afternoons with Toad."

I am a seriously addicted to aviation novels. A former airline pilot, I find Coonts techincal writing to be spot on. His character development is very well done.

An enjoyable, but a little confusing, read

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me longer to finish this book than usual since we had a family vacation with our three children and 10 grandchildren. I really felt like I was bogged down in it and wondered if I'd ever finish. It is a long book, over 500 pages. There are a number of story lines and a large cast of characters. But each of these story lines is interesting and they all intersect. The last part is very fast moving and quite violent, but fortunately not graphically so.

[Paul Parsons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Jake Grafton novel (#4 by my count) and more of a political, drug crime novel than military. Published 1990. In fact, Grafton really doesn't play much of a part. Lots of throw away characters and a bit difficult to follow as a result, although Toad is growing on me. George Bush is the President and I wonder if Coonts had to get permission to use that name, especially when he almost kills him off. Looking forward to the next in the series.

[John Polson · Rating 1 out of 5]

WTF was that all about? I suspect that even Jake Grafton had difficulties with his role amongst the loose ends of this convoluted plot. Stephen Coonts writes brilliantly when on his subject of combat flying - but he doesn't when he isn't!
And calling that a "Jake Grafton" novel - bordered on the dishonest.

[Harold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, Jake Grafton played a minor role in this book. And yes, it is somewhat dated. However, considering what our daily news feed looks like these days, ironically it is perhaps less dated than it was a year ago.

I thought it was crisply written, and was a fast read. Escapist, but in a good way.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite of the series, in fact, I guess this is my least favorite. Of all of the Jake Grafton series that I've read, this is the only one that I've only read once. Still a good book, but this is the time frame after Jake is finished flying, but before Tommy Carmellini comes into the picture.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quelle joie de retrouver un livre où on reste accroché jusqu’au bout (surtout pendant 630 pages….). Même 30 ans après avoir édité, ce livre est impressionnant dans la façon dont sont narrées des histoires avec un point commun mais fondamentalement différentes. L’étoile manquante est pour la traduction merdique (il faut dire les choses) et pour la fin qui me laisse un peu sur ma faim.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The weakest and unnecessarily longest Grafton novel yet, in which Captain Jake barely makes it in as a bit player. First half was ponderous, not quite redeemed by a fast finish. The drug war theme probably had more of an impact when the book was released. Hopefully Grafton plays a more major role going forward.

[kent wisecarver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen is 1 awesome author

Previously I have read all of his books over time and started
at the beginning again And I'm not disappointed ! It is unusual to be able to re read something ready read and be glued to it.... You can read the other reviews for the details But I promise you will be pleasantly rewarded.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too long. Too much. Too many plot lines. Coonts tried to out Clancy Tom Clancy in this “thriller” that was unthrilling and unbelievable at times. A Navy captain on the JCS hunting a sniper? Really. Jake Grafton is a sideshow. Not sure if I’ll continue reading this series. Written over 30 years ago it jokes about Trump running for president. Who knew?!