The Armageddon File (Tommy Carmellini Series #8)

by Stephen Coonts

Overview

"Stephen Coonts delivers another high-powered, politically-charged thriller that is not to be missed. "— The Real Book Spy

"[A] headline-inspired thriller with a conservative slant."—Publishers Weekly

After one of the most contentious and divisive elections in American history, the new president is finally settling into the West Wing. But when his chief of staff discovers evidence that voting machines in key counties in swing states were tampered with, the whole administration is in danger of unraveling. Did someone steal the election? Are America's enemies involved? Were the tampered-with machines actually rigged to swing the election the other way—and if so and the plot failed, what is the conspirators' backup plan?

Jake Grafton and Tommy Carmellini race to solve the mystery of a potentially rigged election before Americans' full faith and credit in our democracy, sovereignty, and rule of law become completely undone.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781621576594
Publisher:	Skyhorse Publishing
Publication date:	11/06/2017
Series:	Tommy Carmellini Series , #8
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

The list of Regnery authors reads like a "who's who" of conservative thought, action, and history.

Date of Birth:

July 19, 1946

Place of Birth:

Morgantown, West Virginia

Education:

B.A., West Virginia University, 1968; J.D., University of Colorado, 1979

Editorial Reviews

09/18/2017
The villain of bestseller Coonts’s Liberty’s Last Stand was a thinly veiled stand-in for Barack Obama. Now, in this second headline-inspired thriller with a conservative slant, he sets his sights on the question of whether the 2016 election was rigged. Billionaire businessman Vaughn Conyer, a populist who’s never held elective office, has defeated Cynthia Hinton, who was “the establishment candidate, promising more of the same,” in an upset victory. Coonts’s series lead, CIA director Jake Grafton, assigns his agent sidekick, Tommy Carmellini, to an FBI task force investigating election fraud. Hinton’s supporters are claiming that foreign governments meddled in the election. Tommy is working with Maggie Miller, the special agent in charge of the task force, when they receive notice that a voting machine technician, Junior Sikes, has been jailed in Pennsylvania on kiddie porn charges and is willing to talk about his part in the voting machine chicanery. Before Junior can squeal, he and three others are whacked. Soon the body count stands at seven, and Tommy is dodging assassination attempts. Less vitriolic than Liberty’s Last Stand, this outing should have broader appeal, though Trump fans will enjoy it most. Agent: Deborah C. Grosvenor, Grosvenor Literary Agency. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

From Publishers Weekly: :
"[I]n this second headline-inspired thriller with a conservative slant, [Coonts] sets his sights on the question of whether the 2016 election was rigged. Billionaire businessman Vaughn Conyer, a populist who's never held elective office, has defeated Cynthia Hinton, who was 'the establishment candidate, promising more of the same,' in an upset victory. Coonts's series lead, CIA director Jake Grafton, assigns his agent sidekick, Tommy Carmellini, to an FBI task force investigating election fraud. Hinton's supporters are claiming that foreign governments meddled in the election. Tommy is working with Maggie Miller, the special agent in charge of the task force, when they receive notice that a voting machine technician, Junior Sikes, has been jailed in Pennsylvania on [felony] charges and is willing to talk about his part in the voting machine chicanery. Before Junior can squeal, he and three others are whacked. Soon the body count stands at seven, and Tommy is dodging assassination attempts. Less vitriolic than Liberty's Last Stand, this outing should have broader appeal, though Trump fans will enjoy it most."

From The Real Book Spy :
"For those on the right, The Armageddon File should find its way to the top of your to-read list rather quickly. Coonts, who switched publishers prior to releasing last year's Liberty's Last Stand—which is one of the most politically incorrect and controversial novels since Vince Flynn’s Term Limits—continues to write unfiltered, conservative-driven storylines that hold nothing back. The Armageddon File is a knockout blow to those who wish Coonts would tone down the politics, and his like-minded fans are sure to enjoy his unapologetic style. The stakes have never been higher for Grafton and Carmelini, as Stephen Coonts delivers another high-powered, politically-charged thriller that is not to be missed."

From the Publisher

2017-09-20
Tommy Carmellini returns in this thriller based on the 2016 presidential election.CIA Director Jake Grafton ponders the shocking defeat of Cynthia Hinton by Vaughn Conyer, a New York billionaire with no political experience. Gasp! Ripped from the headlines! And Hinton must be Clinton! And Conyer must be—but alas, he's no Drump. Hoping to cut a deal for himself, jailed pedophile Junior Sikes asks for a visit from the FBI. He plans to snitch on his employer, voting machine maker American ElectTech, for having rigged the election results. But the "agent" who shows up puts a bullet in his brain before the real FBI can arrive. Although this doesn't look like the CIA's business, Grafton wants narrator Carmellini to look for a foreign connection, a task that receives only token attention. Carmellini's real CIA job is "technician," meaning he does dirty work wherever necessary. He "burgle[s] places" and delivers a fake subpoena, and when he impersonates a Federal Election Commissioner to get into the home of a political scientist who committed suicide, he finds a stack of printed spreadsheets labeled "Armageddon." Perhaps, he muses, it refers to the election as the "final battle between good and evil." He sounds like a wiseass PI straight out of pulp fiction. In one scene he slaps a guy, then says "Don't get all constipated on me, Kurt. We got a relationship going here." Then Kurt whispers, "The wrong person won the election." Later, Carmellini blows a bad guy's brains out with his .45 after he decides "Screw that first-shot crap." As subtly as a train wreck, the author, through Carmellini, compares today's progressive left with World War II fascists: "Both hated free speech," blah, blah. And there's the evil, near-nonagenarian billionaire and one-time SS Hitlerite Anton Hunt, who now supports left-wing causes and may have tried to fix the election for Clin—er, Hinton.If you believe a criminal lost the White House in 2016, give Coonts' (Liberty's Last Stand, 2016, etc.) latest a try. But be warned: it won't make American literature great again.

Kirkus Reviews