It is 1869. The United States is painfully recovering from the Civil War and Lt. Peter Wake concludes the first shore duty of his career at Pensacola Naval Yard to become the executive officer of the USS Canton. Headed to turbulent Central America to deal with a former American naval officer turned renegade mercenary, Wake discovers that no one trusts anyone in that deadly part of the world—with good reason.

As the action unfolds in Colombia and Panama, Wake realizes that his most dangerous adversary may be a man on his own ship, forcing him to make a decision that will lead to his court-martial in Washington when the mission has finally ended.

This historical thriller will take the reader from the sinister streets of Cartagena to the reef-strewn coast of Nicaragua to the halls of power in Washington, D.C. Along the way, the ambitions of European empires, Latin American dictatorships, and American politics form a dark background to Wake’s desperate search for a maniacal killer—and his own trial.