The Minotaur was a departure from the typical Jake Grafton adventure stories. Jake takes a job in the procurement sector of the Navy/US Military, and his job is to shepherd a new plane through the Request for Proposal, design, testing, and final acceptance stages of the procurement process. The bumps in the road along the way include pompous politicians, Soviet spies, crooked FBI agents, other ne'er do wells in the government, and the military-congressional-industrial complex itself. This episode introduces Toad Tarkington to Rita Moravia, his wife before the book ends. While Jake is pretty much anchored to a desk or hangar, there is quite a bit of flying by Toad and Rita. I enjoyed the book very much. Along with the adventures of flying, it offers a look into the procurement process of the US military.