Honorable Lies - by Robert N Macomber (Paperback)

About the Book

The tenth book in Robert Macomber's Honor series of naval fiction. In September of 1888, Commander Peter Wake has five days to rescue his two captured operatives from a dungeon in Spanish colonial Havana. But his plan quickly falls apart when the head of Spanish counterintelli...

Book Synopsis

It's September 1888, and Commander Peter Wake, Office of Naval Intelligence, has been ordered to salvage a failed espionage operation against the Spanish Navy in Havana. His network of spies in the city has been compromised, international political tensions are escalating, the U.S. presidential election is looming, and Wake has five days to locate and rescue two of his network who are missing and assumed captured by the Spanish.

Wake immediately realizes that his old nemesis, Colonel Isidro Marrón, head of the dreaded Spanish counterintelligence service, has set the perfect trap to kill him. Wake's covert American team of experts in linguistics, chemistry, and lock picking are soon hard-pressed to simply stay alive as they struggle to carry out his hastily conceived plan. Amidst all of this chaos, Wake saves the lives of Havana's Spanish elite, forms a nervous friendship with the colonial governor, receives an odd message from his Cuban revolutionary friend José Martí, encounters the shadowy world of international Freemasonry, and discovers an unusual bond with the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt. Can Peter Wake trust anyone--or anything--in Cuba?

Review Quotes

At last we have an American character the equivalent of Hornblower or Aubrey.--John Prados, author of Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA

Macomber is the O'Brian of the Caribbean.--Randy Wayne White, author of the bestselling Doc Ford series

Macomber is today's foremost practitioner of a fascinating subgenre--historical fiction of the nautical variety. Building his series on the imagined autobiography of Peter Wake, he's given readers a vivid, multi-dimensional hero. Macomber makes the remarkable times he portrays glow. . . . History comes alive.--Philip K. Jason, Professor Emeritus, United States Naval Academy, and author of Acts and Shadows: The Vietnam War in American Literary Culture

My advice is to sign on early and set sail with Peter Wake for both solid historical context and exciting sea stories!--Admiral James Stavridis, Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander (2009-2013) and dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (2013-2018)

Peter Wake continues to emerge as an American hero worthy of his counterparts in naval fiction.--George Jepson, Tall Ships Books

Robert Macomber writes well and inspiringly so--giving voice to the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps and its officers and enlisted men (ratings) now lost to memory. . . . Does Wake work? Yes, in many ways he captures the essential--which is, no doubt, why he has so many followers on both sides of the Pacific and Atlantic.-- "The NAVY"

The Peter Wake novels are more than just gripping stories about life at sea--they offer a carefully rendered, historically accurate imagining of America's naval history in the second half of the 19th century.--Clay Risen, author of The Crowded Hour: Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Riders and the Dawn of the American Century

About the Author

Robert N. Macomber is an internationally recognized, award-winning maritime writer, lecturer, television commentator, expedition leader, and researcher, specializing in the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Named the "2020 Writer of the Year" by the Florida Writers Association, he is best known as the author of the acclaimed Honor Series of naval novels and is proud to have readers across the globe. His awards include the Florida Genealogy Society's Outstanding Achievement Award for his nonfiction work on Florida's maritime history, the Patrick Smith Literary Award for Best Historical Novel of Florida (At the Edge of Honor), and the John Esten Cooke Literary Award for Best Work in Southern Fiction (Point of Honor). He is the guest author at regional and international book festivals and was named by Florida Monthly magazine as one of the 22 Most Intriguing Floridians of 2006. His sixth novel, A Different Kind of Honor, won the highest national honor in his genre: the American Library Association's 2008 W. Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction. Each year, Macomber travels approximately 15,000 sea miles around the globe, giving lectures and researching his novels.