The Malacca Conspiracy Paperback – June 26, 2010

A pair of oil tankers in the Malacca Strait in Indonesia is targeted by terrorists aiming at destroying America's economy through control of this crucial waterway and subsequent oil pricing. One tanker explodes, resulting in not only the destruction of fire but also the ecological horror of millions of gallons of crude oil spilled around these islands. Navy JAG officer Zack Brewer, recently assigned to the area as Naval attaché to the American Ambassador in Indonesia is tasked with finding the perpetrators before they can unleash even greater devastation on the area as well as on America. Naval attaché to the ambassador in Singapore, Diane Colcernian, is named as his partner.Between the two of them they survive a bombing of a resort, getting shot down in a Navy helicopter, the fire of a suicide-bomber-doctor who takes out the Indonesian president, and a nuclear bomb exploded as a test on a nearby island. Then they must rush to find the perpetrators before they can unleash nuclear holocaust in American cities, including Washington DC. Through it all they rediscover a love they thought was lost and is culminated in a wedding most people can only dream of.The Malacca Conspiracy is the fifth in Brown's Navy Justice series. This former JAG officer knows the business and writes an excellent story that holds the reader spellbound from Prolog to Epilog. His Christian views are never preachy, they`re just a normal part of the characters' thinking and behavioral processes, making the message as natural as real life.I read this book of the series first, but I'm buying the rest and reading them in order.

This is my first Don Brown novel. Mr. Brown certainly has written a highly entertaining, fast-paced page turner. He maintains high drama and uncertain outcome in a titanic struggle between good and evil.The tale is marred only by the reduction of each of its characters to caricature. The good are handsome or pretty devout Christians, and all Muslims are bad, bad, bad. This renders much of their dialogue treacley and banal. Nuance and tolerance are unknown to Mr. Brown.

The book is bit slow at the start, but builds into an excellent read! The twists and turns are interesting, keeping the reader on the edge of their seat. I highly recommend this book.Concerning some comments from other reviewers about "Christian..." get over it! In the world today it seems that it is OK to speak of Zen enlightenment, Moslem dedication and atheistic objectivity... can we not be broad enough in thinking to not take offense in what some have mentioned as a display of Christian morality. Nothing Brown writes is offensive, rather he displays characters that are believable and consistent as they play out their roles. And, nothing that is written that displays Brown's beliefs gets in the way of the plot or unravelling of the yarn.Buy the book! It's entertaining and well written.

I've read all of the Don Brown Navy Justice Series books I'm aware of. Four of them are a continuing story. The 5th, Black Sea Affair, sort of diverts but at the end ties in the main character from the other books.Don Brown is like a cross between Tom Clancy and the JAG corp. Don Brown was a former Navy JAG lawyer, and is a decent fiction writer. He writes similar to Clancy. Not quite as sophisticated as Clancy, but close and still enjoyable.His books are also Christian fiction (published by Zondervan), although not preachy. It touches on the character's thoughts and brief conversations with each other. The main characters are all Christians.Recurring characters throughout the books are:LT-LTCDR Zack Brewer, USN JAG, star lawyer of the Navy, successfully tries several high profile cases throughout the books. He begins the series as a Lieutenant but is promoted to LTCDR quickly.LT-LTCDR Diane Colcernian- Zack's love interest. The first book starts with some trouble in the past between them, but closes that quickly.President Mack Williams- Republican POTUS and former Navy JAG lawyer. Sort of a recurring theme; Navy JAG lawyers with names that rhyme with "ack".There are some Presidential advisors and minor recurring characters, but I'm getting bored with this exercise so I won't list them.This book starts with a phenomenal plot device: somebody starts driving up oil futures through insider trading just before oil tankers are attacked and sunk in the Straights of Malacca.This scenario is absolutely terrifying. I've been through the Straights of Malacca twice, on a U.S. Navy Destroyer. The straights get really narrow around Singapore. A disaster on the scale of the attacks in this book would shut the place down. Oil prices would skyrocket into the realm of "we either find an alternative fuel, or start buying horses again". Then our suburbs would stink of horse crap.In addition to the insider trading and attacks on ships, a rouge general serving as Chief of Staff of the Indonesian military decides to overthrow the President and acquire nukes to attack the U.S. with. His assassination of the Indonesian President is again a terrifying scenario: the President's personal doctor has a lung removed and replaced with explosives, which are set off during a routine medical check up. Oh, yeah, the U.S. Ambassador is visiting and goes MIA in the blast, along with one of the main character JAG lawyers.Also, a nuke is set off in downtown Philadelphia.After this great build up, with some awesome cliff-hanging scenarios that I hope NEVER happen in real life, the book goes downhill. The insider trading is forgotten, as is the oil tanker attacks. It then becomes a formulaic "good guys win the story". That is unfortunate. Even the supposedly suspenseful moments in the book, like the small plane carrying a nuke into D.C. fail to evoke emotion, since you realize by this point that the good guys are going to win. The last 100 or so pages of the book read sort of like this: "blah, blah, general, blah, blah, President, blah, blah, Navy Seals, blah, blah JAGs goes on SEAL team mission, blah, blah plane gets shot down, end of story, award ceremony, speech, marriage proposal."Also, as a former Navy man, I caught a few discrepancies. It's not a big deal, and you're not likely to notice. Don Brown shouldn't feel bad; I've caught Clancy being wrong on some Navy technical issues. I suspect Clancy took some artistic license though, as he needed the discrepancy to move his story along. Don Brown's discrepancies are minor. The Port Royal is not an "Aegis Class Cruiser". Nor is it a "Heavy Cruiser". It is a Ticonderoga Class cruiser. The entire class is Aegis. Like I said, it was minor.The Navy Justice Series is a good read. I enjoyed it a lot, even if it did fizzle out at the end of The Malacca Conspiracy.

I've been waiting for The Malacca Conspiracy to come out ever since it was announced on Don's website and it has exceeded my expectations and is a powerful thriller. I've read other reviews that say this book is just an attempt to cast Islam and Muslims in a negative light, especially in the post-9/11 era. Those reviewers are certainly entitled to their opinions; however, it is clear they have not read Don's other books which approach the topic in a balanced manner. Regardless, not every author who writes about the geopolitical environment we live in is out to make a political statement. Don simply writes good books about relevant topics with a Christian undertone. I highly recommend The Malacca Conspiracy and the other books in the Navy Justice Series if you're looking for a good read that will keep you very entertained.