Commander is the second book in a trilogy, following Chief which covered the exploits of the author's Father, "Hod," a chief gunner's mate in WWII.
"Dance" Dantes a Naval Academy grad, rowed crew for a Marine coach and became used to winning. Commander takes place in the post-Viet Nam years, and we find Dantes retired and the founder of "The Liberal List," a conservative blog with a rabid following, and up to his eyes in D.C. politics, a renegade CIA Exec and pesky former Soviets bent on vengeance with a top CIA spook, "Starzinger," "Zinger" for short. Romance blooms for Dance with a beautiful national network TV news star and it all gets very complicated when top liberals from Dance's blog start showing up dead.
Add into the mix Dance's turned back then bilged classmate Wade, another USNA former midshipman who became a career Navy SEAL. Both live in the D.C. - Annapolis area and their friendship continues, sometimes in very unexpected ways.
The action weaves together a competing national news network correspondent, Zinger's Girl Friday/ Office Secretary Dixie Delight and the owner of the local Annapolis newspaper, a Georgia Tech Engineering grad, spending the last of the bequest from her grandmother on a moribund, failing local institution and always looking for the story behind the story