I'm not sure if Robert N. Macomber, author of the Peter Wake, USN series, has a beef with the army, but in his second book, Point of Honor, the land-based military forces don't come off in a very positive light. The army officers we meet are mostly pompous, incompetent or cowardly, or all of the above. They certainly don't compare favorably to Wake and the other members of the U.S. Navy -- with the exception of one bellicose admiral, who fortunately is taken out of the story early on.

It's 1864, and Wake now commands the navy schooner St. James as the Civil War drags on interminably. The book is packed with missions in the ceaseless heat and mosquito clouds along the west coast of Florida -- from a quest to find and capture a group of Union Army deserters to an effort to sway the loyalties in a colony whose residents still support the rebels. The climax comes when sailors under Wake's command mount a desperate defense against Confederate troops in an abandoned village in an ill-conceived campaign to cut rebel forces off from much-needed food supplies; in this case, the army's lack of participation in the fight borders on criminal.

Wake, whose military acumen is usually sound, doesn't hesitate to flout the authority and honor of army commanders with whom he disagrees. His tendency to get under the skin of prominent and influential officers will have repercussions down the road ... as might his apparent willingness to swing a fist in defense of the navy's reputation.

His love affair with Linda, daughter of a Confederate loyalist, continues unabated -- in fact, Macomber ramps up the stakes a bit on that one, although romance never dominates the story.

The story also deals with the perils of yellow fever, a mosquito-borne virus that could decimate a community or ship's crew in those days. At times, the disease looms larger than the Confederates, although both enemies take their toll by book's end.

The conclusion signals a big change ahead in Wake's fortunes, so I'm eager to see where that takes us.

At times, the dialogue in Point of Honor comes across as a little stilted, but a bit of awkwardness here and there doesn't detract from the overall story. This is an enjoyable book, looking at the Civil War from an unusual angle, and I am very much enjoying Peter Wake's adventures. Looking ahead, it appears that future books in the series will take place throughout the latter half of the 19th century, so I anticipate a lot more changes lie in store for our hero.