Jon Coon Releases Latest Novel: Ghost River
Ghost River is a thrilling story detailing the aftermath of badly constructed bridges based on actual events.
Scuba Diving editorsDigital editor Becca Hurley met Jon Coon to discuss the upcoming release of Ghost River at last year's DEMA.
Without giving too much of the story away, the book follows the impact on an underwater criminal investigator whose partner is murdered and whose life is threatened when he discovers a multi-state conspiracy responsible for bridge failures and several deaths.
According to Coon, public safety and police diving, for many years had the highest number of fatalities of any technical or commercial aspect of diving. Not only is this type of diving dangerous and requires additional training, but it can also often come with little to no recognition.
Coon wrote Ghost River as a tribute to the very few, highly competent instructors who made it their life's calling to provide the training necessary to keep these divers alive.
When asked what Coon hoped divers would take away from Ghost River, safety was top of mind.
"Divers are taught to dive within their limits just as safety dive team members are taught to stay within the standard operating procedures. When the divers in Ghost River get into trouble it's because those two very good rules aren't followed."
Courtesy Jon CoonGhost River
For me, this novel was an exciting and thought-provoking dive thriller. Ghost River really paints a picture of what dive safety and search and rescue divers experience on a daily basis. This novel led me to do my own research about bridge and structure collapses in my home state of Florida. See what others have to say about Coon's latest novel:
"A gritty, emotionally immersive and addictive journey forcing the reader to confront the best and worst of the human experience. Ghost River plunges us across the membrane separating the natural and supernatural psychic consciousness. This is Jon Coon's best work — a provocative and disruptive journey shrouded in mystery, heroism and suspense from the start and on the level of the best works from the likes of Clancy, Christie, Fleming, and Daniel Woodrell." - Drew Richardson, PADI CEO
"Jon has a way of taking underwater criminal investigations with all the dangers, challenges, as well as the glory to a level that takes the reader on a suspenseful, heart-pounding adventure..." - Michael Berry, First Sergeants/Dive Team Coordinator, Virginia State Police
About the Author:
After four years in the Navy, Jon Coon trained as a commercial oil field diver specializing in explosives work and deep salvage. He was the lead diver and operations manager for the salvage of several large bridges as well as numerous oil field projects. Coon has extensive writing experience with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Master of Divinity degree. He has been scuba diving for more than fifty years and a scuba instructor for more than forty years.