Copyright 1997.
A tank stationed on an atoll in the Spratley Islands is destroyed in an explosion. The Chinese accuse the U.S. Carrier battlegroup in the area as being the instigators. Soon another base is destroyed, and a Vietnamese patrol boat is sunk. Admiral Tombstone Magruder and the U.S.S. Thomas Jefferson has to find out what is going on before this leads to a war with China.
This is the first book that William Keith the creator of this series didn’t write. I don’t know who wrote this, but it is an OK book I suppose. The setting is if anything not dated as the Chinese still are actively claiming the whole South China Sea and its oil deposits. It anything with China’s growing navy it has the potential to become as serious incident in the future. The writer though does write a book that not a lot happens for most of the book. There are some incidents with a cruise launched missile from a mysterious sub. The commander of the Aegis cruiser is way too gung-ho for action and has to be relived. Also, the stationing of a tank on a small atoll seems a bit dumb. I don’t know if the Chinese have actually done that. I know they keep troops on them to enforce their claims but a tank.
Anyway, the action doesn’t really come until the last few chapters of the book, and it gets resolved way too easily. Tombstone gets reassigned and his best friend is promoted to admiral and command of the carrier. He also starts a romantic relationship with a female pilot that he was friends with. Sadly, the series without William Keith is a bit lackluster.
THE BOOKS THAT TIME FORGOT. 