The story takes place in early May 1915 and moves back and forth between the perspectives of three characters: Isabel Nelson, Sydney Sinclair, and Edward Thorpe-Tracey. Sydney and Edward are passengers on the Lusitania travelling from New York to Liverpool; Isabel Nelson is a typist who gets a job working at the British Admiralty in Room 40. The characters are connected by the ship and, though they never meet in the story, they are bound together by the tragic events of May 7, 1915.
I have to say that *shamefully* I had never heard about the sinking of the Lusitania until I picked up this book (how did this event never come up in my history classes?!?); however, now the book has piqued my curiosity about this important historical event and I definitely want to learn more about it. I felt the ship was a perfect match for the story – it was almost like another character. The fate of the RMS Lusitania is common knowledge so I’m not giving anything away when I say that the ship sinks, however the fates of the characters are not so I will not go into details about what happens to anyone, or who is left at the end. I’ll let you read it and see. 🙂
For the most part, I found the characters to be quite likeable and relatable. A few of them were not so interesting, mostly because I felt they could have been fleshed out more (for example: Brooke Sinclair and Mildred Fox felt kind of ‘flat’ to me). I didn’t feel that we saw quite enough of their personalities to really warm to them or to understand their actions or their choices in the book, but they also were not the protagonists so I can understand why this was the case.
The ending of the book, while good and reasonably realistic, did not quite wrap things up for the characters in the way I’d anticipated, and so I found myself with lots of questions remaining. I definitely was left wanting more. I’d love to see some kind of sequel to this book (or maybe it already exists and I don’t know about it?), or a continuation of the stories of the remaining characters because I feel there is so much left of their stories left to tell.
If you like stories based on true events, ones that teach you a little bit about history and encourage you to be curious and learn more on your own, then you’ll probably like this one. If you love strong female characters, then you’ll definitely enjoy it – there are a few of them in there. And if you also like a little bit of romance thrown into the mix, you won’t be disappointed.
- Goodreads rating – 3.91
- SUMMARY – Michelle