Robert Melley

The Strait Robert Melley First edition

THE STRAIT is a novel about Al Queda linked terrorists planning to sink super tankers in the Strait of Malacca. It is an action/adventure novel written by a man who's carefully researched his subject and is very familiar with the US Navy's newest ships, weapons systems and tactics. The plot's right out of today's headline news i.e., the real threat of the sinking of a fully loaded super tanker in the narrow choke point of one of the world's busiest waterways, the Strait of Malacca. Desperate for funds since their traditional sources dried up, Islamic terrorists based in Southeast Asia decide to attack oil tankers to force Gulf nations friendly to the west to pay millions of dollars in tribute to keep their ships safe from attack. The terrorist leader, El Shaba, the Ghost, has issued a call for terrorists groups in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia to join him and unite millions of Muslims in Southeast Asia under his banner. The US counters his move by sending the USS Virginia, a new stealthy nuclear powered attack submarine and the new Advanced Seal Delivery System (ASDS), a mini-sub, which carries a SEAL Team in a safe, dry environment into the enemy's shallow water littoral area. Her top-secret mission is the assassination of the leaders of three terrorist groups. The killers are three CIA agents, well trained in "black ops." One's a raven-haired Asian beauty with nine confirmed "kills" to her credit. In the course of the mission the USS Virginia uses her stealth and new sonar systems to track a Chinese sub sent to disrupt a US Carrier Strike Group's exercises in the South China Sea and halts a Chinese effort to occupy offshore oil platforms of a US ally. With the help of a Mossad agent, the CIA agents land in Indonesia. The plot of THE STRAIT leaps from today's headlines and holds the reader's attention from the first page until the last. The story's fast paced and the actions straight forward. The book has been well received by sev