At the Edge of Honor, which was awarded the 2003 Patrick D. Smith Literary Award for Best Historical Novel of Florida, is set in 1863 Civil War Florida and the British Bahamas during the desperate coastal conflict between the U.S. Navy and Confederate blockade-runners. Peter Wake, a veteran Massachusetts lumber schooner captain now turned into a volunteer Union naval officer, is given command of a small sailing gunboat with orders to bring the war to the enemy, wherever they may hide. Wake endeavors to do just that, becoming the most successful small boat blockade skipper in the East Gulf Blockade Squadron. But along the way, he learns about the perils and tragedies of naval command, international politics in the British Bahamas, and egos among senior officers, and falls for the daughter of an enemy Rebel runner in Key West. Can he accomplish his mission, get the girl of his dreams, and stay out of trouble with the admiral? His quest will take him into the heart of danger and to the very edge of honor.

Robert Macomber's Honor series of naval fiction follows the life and career of Peter Wake in the U.S. Navy during the tumultuous years from 1863 to 1901. At the Edge of Honor is the first in the series and winner of the Patrick D. Smith Literary Award for Best Historical Novel of Florida.

The year is 1863. The Civil War is leaving its bloody trail across the nation as Peter Wake, born and bred in the snowy North, joins the U.S. Navy as a volunteer officer and arrives in steamy Florida for duty with the East Gulf Blockading Squadron. The idealistic Peter Wake has handled boats before, but he's new to the politics and illicit liaisons that war creates among men. Assigned to the Rosalie, a tiny, armed sloop, Captain Wake commands a group of seasoned seamen on a series of voyages to seek and arrest Confederate blockade-runners and sympathizers, from Florida's coastal waters through to near the remote out-islands of the Bahamas.

Wake risks his reputation when he falls in love with Linda Donahue, whose father is a Confederate zealot, and steals away to spend precious hours with her at her Key West home. Their love is tested as Wake learns he must make the ugly decisions of war even in a beautiful, tropical paradise—decisions that take him up to the edge of honor.