Cardinal Virtues

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, the first military thriller novel in the War of the Submarine series by R.G. Roberts. Cardinal Virtues is the winner of the BestThrillers.com 2022 Best Military Thriller.