Commander Alex Coleman is no hero. Just ask him.
It’s 2037 and Alex is one more disobeyed order away from kissing his naval career goodbye.
He used to be high speed, the kind of officer on the fast track to submarine command. Then he threw it all away trying to save a few civilian lives from his glory hungry commanding officer. No pain no gain, right? Alex isn’t sorry he did the right thing but being everyone’s favorite scapegoat isn’t fun.
Now, he’s marking time to retirement on Armistice Station, an underwater megastation where you can buy and do anything—except salvage a trashed Navy career. Alex is stuck doling out supplies to visiting Navy ships and chasing unruly sailors, just how he wanted to spend his last years in the good old U.S. Navy.
But things aren’t quiet in Alex’s underwater amusement park. France and India are expanding into the Indian Ocean and want the United States out, and Alex’s eclectic band of castoff sailors are all that’s in their way. Armed with nothing but creativity and coffee creamer fireballs, Alex must team up with the admiral who hates him most. Together, they must escape the jaws of a closing enemy trap set by the canny French commander who ruined his career in the first place. Can Alex outsmart her this time, or will he end up as the first POW in the next world war?
Cardinal Virtues is first book in the series War of the Submarine, also published as Season 1 of the War of the Submarine serial on Kindle Vella.
"The Cold War may be over, but that doesn't mean that a compelling naval thriller in the style of Tom Clancy doesn't still make for an enrapturing novel. This is especially true in Cardinal Virtues, which takes place in a near-future setting where huge underwater stations offer monumental economic and strategic value to any country that exercises control over them. The futuristic elements are seamlessly woven into the storyline, leaving the primary focus on the military and political intrigues, and the suspenseful action scenes that accompany them. A high-stakes underwater adventure of epic proportions, Cardinal Virtues brings the suspense of classic military thrillers and infuses them into a fully-conceivable and fully-submerged science fiction setting." - R.C. Gibson from Indies Today
"In this technical mystery/thriller, a reader experiences vicariously what it's like to be under relentless attack. The main characters struggle to outwit a cunning collaboration of enemies both on and under the sea. The ending will leave you wanting to pick up the next book in the series." - Nancy Panko (April 2022) from the Military Writers Society of America
