A panoramic novel about how America began its global ascent to power

An Honorable War, by Robert N. Macomber. Pineapple Press. 392 pages. Hardcover $26.95. Trade paperback $16.95.

How does Mr. Macomber keep doing this? The thirteenth installment of his splendid Honor Series, like the earlier titles in the series, once again transforms a pile of historical fact into a colorful, well-imagined, and highly suspenseful entertainment. Captain Peter Wake, assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence, is no desk-jockey, but a man of action – in this case leading the action plan that he designed to satisfy the ambitious and often outlandish Theodore Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy. The author’s subtitle sets the historical scene: “The Spanish-American War Begins.”  

This episode, cast as another segment of the memoirs of Peter Wake, launches a three-part trilogy within the burgeoning series.

It is immensely impressive, though it sometimes walks on the edge of too much detail and too many voices. As is so often the case in historical fiction, we must accept the awkward convention of a narrator remembering conversations verbatim. It’s a small price pay for the explosive results.

Roosevelt is a warrior wannabe who has just enough clout and cunning to engage his country in the destiny of Cuba.

The story Mr. Macomber tells so engagingly begins with the explosion of the USS Maine, one of the first U. S. battleships, in Havana Harbor. It was a deadly catastrophe that killed hundreds helped fire anti-Spanish sentiment and rally U. S. support for an independent Cuba. Indeed, the ship had been sent to protect American interests following Spain’s cruel suppression of the Cuban revolution.

Wake finds himself charged with two missions. The first is a to gather information about Spanish intentions and military capacities as well as the situation of Cuban rebels.  He and his longtime friend and associate Rork barely escape this clandestine operation with their lives.

The second mission, based on the information gathered in the first, involves maneuvers against Spanish forces conducted from the port of Isabela. Wake puts together a fleet of converted yachts whose agility makes them unusually effective against the larger Spanish ships. He also masterminds all kinds of tactical tricks that surprise the enemy sailors and throw them off guard. . . .

To read the entire review, as it appears in the February 15, 2017 Fort Myers Florida Weekly, the February 16 Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte edition, and  the February 23 Naples and Bonita Springs editions, click here:  Florida Weekly – An Honorable War

Politics push the plot in suspenseful seafaring adventure

The Assassin’s Honor, by Robert N. Macomber. Pineapple Press. 392 pages. Hardcover $26.95.

One of the great feelings that comes over me when I settle into a new Honor Series novel by Mr. Macomber is the sense that I’m in such capable and caring hands. It’s like having an insurance policy against disappointments. And there are none in the twelfth installment of this unique and durable series. The action is set in December of 1892. Commander Peter Wake, after 29 years in the navy that includes 10 years in the Office of Naval Intelligence with assignments worldwide, is finally in charge of his own ship – a new cruiser, “Bennington,” of the latest design. 

As one might expect, he is regularly in the company of his career-long aide, Boatswain Sean Rork, an estimable ruffian from Ireland. Theirs is a very special relationship, a deep friendship that goes far beyond the conventions of officer and subordinate.

If this new post sounds like settling down, it isn’t quite that. However, there is a romance brewing. If it develops as both parties hope, Wake could once again be a married man. The quick-start relationship with a beautiful Spanish woman of breeding and intelligence is a major attraction for the readers and for Peter Wake, especially since she takes a liberal stance toward Cuba’s future that allies her with her admirer. Finding the time to spend with her is as great a problem as meeting the challenges of his duties.

The action moves between Key West and Tampa, with interludes along the Caribbean coast of Mexico, in Jamaica, and – in part through flashbacks that sketch his first encounter with Maria Ana Maura y Abad – in Washington D.C.

The main action is generated by a scheme to distract and mislead Wake. Fooled by clues that have been planted to mislead him, Wake convinces his superior, Admiral Walker, to send him to and beyond Cozumel to thwart an attempt by someone aboard the German “Gneisenau” to assassinate a Mayan rebel. The Germans, wishing to establish a naval station to protect their Mexican and other interests, can’t risk a government overthrow or instability.

It turns out that Wake had succumbed to manipulated evidence designed to keep him occupied while an assassin was sent to Tampa (actually Yvor City) to do away with Wake’s good friend, the famed author and Cuban patriot José Martí. Wake’s old enemies from previous adventures, Germany and Spain, are working against him. The conflicts are both national and personal. . . .

To read the entire review, as it appears in the September 23 Fort Myers Florida Weekly and the September 24 Naples, Bonita Springs, and Punta Gorda / Port Charlotte editions, click here: Florida Weekly – Assassin’s Honor

Honors Series secret agent works to stop a war before it starts

Honors Rendered, by Robert N. Macomber. Pineapple Press. 376 pages. $21.95.

Though Robert Macomber lives on Southwest Florida’s Pine island, he seems to spend a good part of each year traveling the seas In pursuit of the local color and history that fuel his nautical adventures featuring Commander Peter Wake. All of the Honor Series novels are noted for their meticulous research on the peoples, places, and politics that the author allows his powerful imagination to infuse with high action, suspense and moral weight. “Honors Rendered,” the 11th in the series, is more than “no exception,” it is one of Mr. Macomber’s best.

Set in the late 1880s, this adventure sees Peter Wakecovertly attempt defuse a political powder keg in the South Pacific. The U. S. government fears further aggressive actions by Germany against the island nation of Samoa. Samoa is potentially a U. S. ally, but at present both Germany and the U. S. are positioning for influence – and this means positioning their warships for possible confrontation. Germany has already won the favor of a portion of the Samoans and installed a puppet king.  Indeed, the Samoans themselves are near civil war.

Wake, working secretly, must find a way to quiet things down so that all-out war is prevented. Failing that outcome, his mission is to design and orchestrate a quick and complete victory for American forces. He improvises a plan that includes the assistance of an artillery officer who is a member of the Hawaiian royal family; a seaworthy Methodist minister who is fighting slave-traders (“blackbirders”) in the Pacific islands and Australia; and a resourceful, aging femme fatale whom Wake pretty much blackmails into being his spy within Germany’s military and commercial establishment on Samoa.

Let’s not forget the late immergence into the tale of one Sean Rork, Wake’s good friend, military subordinate, and partner in many similar situations over the years. Their banter adds a comic element that frequently punctuates the tension.

The glory of this book is the personality of Wake himself. He is at once pragmatic and idealistic; endlessly resourceful while knowing and accepting his limits; skilled in every aspect of espionage, seamanship, and survival. Working as he usually does without proof of his identity or authority, he is a vulnerable shadow figure who has no safety net. Mr. Macomber has built and refined this character masterfully over the years, and now he etches Wake’s aging process with great authenticity. . . .

To read this review in its entirety, as it appears in the October 23, 2013 Fort Myers Florida Weekly ,the October 24 Charlotte County edition, and the October 31 Naples edition, click here: Florida Weekly – Robert N. Macomber