W.E.B. Griffin The Corps Series: Books 5-6: Line of Fire & Close Combat

Book Synopsis: LINE OF FIREWhile the bloody battle for control of the Solomons rages on, two Marines are trapped at a Coastwatcher station on tiny Buka Island. They are there to report on Japanese air activity, and their position is becoming increasingly perilous, even while their supplies are diminishing rapidly; if they are not rescued soon, they may never make it off the island. On the orders of newly-commissioned Marine Brigadier General Fleming Pickering, a team is assembled: Captain Charles Galloway, still recuperating from his crash into the sea; Second Lieutenant Malcolm Pickering, Fleming’s son and the owner of a dangerous daredevil streak; Lieutenant Ken “Killer” McCoy, China Marine and hardened veteran; Sergeant Thomas McCoy, his brother, a man of such temper and talent that he keeps getting busted back to PFC and then promoted back again; and Sergeant George Hart, the youngest detective ever on the St. Louis vice squad, tricked into military service and now determined to make his mark. These men are about to attempt the impossible: to take the beleaguered Marines off Buka, under the very noses of the Japanese. They will have only one chance — so they’d better get it right....

CLOSE COMBATAs Japanese forces close in for an all-out effort to recapture Guadalcanal from the American forces occupying the island, many fates converge and intertwine. First Lieutenant William Dunn, twenty-one years old but already one of the only two pilots remaining from his fighter squadron’s original sixteen, must learn what it is like to lead men — and to lose them. Hot-tempered Sergeant Thomas McCoy finds he has a hero’s welcome waiting stateside — if he can avoid a court-martial first. On a bloody island, Major Jake Dillon discovers just how much combat is involved in a combat correspondent’s life. First Lieutenant R.B. Macklin, a consummate bully, is put on a War Bond tour so he will not endanger his own men. General Fleming Pickering, on a ticklish diplomatic mission, attempts to balance the hot and mighty temperaments of General Douglas MacArthur, OSS Chief William “Wild Bill” Donovan and Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox. Corporal Robert Easterbrook, still wet behind the ears, discovers that the price of success in wartime may be uncomfortably high. From the Solomons to Australia to Washington, D.C., the warriors, plus the wives and sweethearts who love them, once more find themselves with the challenges of their lives....