While such enduring bad guys as Nazis, KGB agents, Cosa Nostra gangsters, sinister Asiatics and the occasional vampire still receive top billing in U.S. popular fiction and cinema, the events of 9/11 have not surprisingly inspired a stream of works featuring villains of Middle Eastern and/or jihadist persuasion.
"The Malacca Conspiracy" stands out as one of the most disturbing examples yet to appear.
The fifth of Don Brown's "Navy Justice" series reads like an unintentional parody of the Stanley Kubrick film "Dr. Strangelove," with Indonesian Army General Suparman Perkasa replacing Sterling Hayden as General Jack D. Ripper.