It was really interesting read and kept me turning the pages. The historical detail fascinated me as I wasn't aware of it and the author explained at the end how certain questions have never been answered and his creativity in providing possible answers seemed entirely plausible. Very entertaining and enjoyable although a bid sad too as it was a real event. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Luisitania has some really interesting history so as a bit of a history nerd I was really intrigued to see how an Agatha Style mystery would work on this specific vessel- I was also really quite excited as the author pair are both historians so felt it was going to be really well researched which isn't an essential for me when reading historical fiction but it is always a bonus.

This was a real mix for me there was lots of murder but there was also that element of political drama which added to the tension, all of this is set against a backdrop of the world in utter turmoil with the first world war which isn't normally a period that I gravitate to.

The book as I've said takes you back to 1915 and we meet Patrick Gallagher a civil servant who has been tasked with accompanying a British diplomat back to England but when a passenger is found dead in a locked cabin Patrick is asked by the captain to investigate-is there a killer on board?

While I enjoyed the characters and I enjoyed the setting and there are obvious parallels between this book and some of the Agatha Christie books especially the locked room mystery aspect, I just found myself a little overwhelmed by all the twists and turns and misdirection it felt to me that the story was trying too hard and if it had been stripped back a little it would have had more impact.

This book is definitely worth a read especially if you are a fan of a classic and very well researched historical crime perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers it just for me lacked subtlety.

I rated this 3.5 stars

This is the sort of book I like to read on holiday, preferably in a beach with a cool drink on hand. Nothing too challenging (although there were a lot of characters to keep track of ) ,but knowing what happened to the Lusitania in advance did rather spoil it for me.

It was really interesting and kept me hooked. You really had to focus a lot on your reading, you couldn't read and be somehow somewhere in your mind: there's a lot of informations may it be on the issues ongoing onboard as well as the ongoing wars at that period.

I didn't knew that part of history, how the Lusitania got used in the war, so it was really interesting and sad, as well. As the Lusitania really existed, the way it ended ; even if the story onboard was imaginated by the author, you could really wonder if something along the line happened for real there.

The only "bad point" I have to give is that it was very slow and long : I feel like there could be less little plots (maybe the Dolly/Billie one) so the story could feel less heavy. I do get that it's part of the murder mystery, but it stll felt like it was slowly getting too lenghty.

The first in a new series centered on Patrick Gallagher, a British official, traveling back to England on the Lusitania. He is supposed to be bringing back a man wanted for treason but finds himself drawn in to a mystery when another passenger is murdered.

I didn’t mind the mystery here but I struggled with the writing and voice. I think it would have been better if it was in first person as we could’ve gotten better insights, especially early on.

New York 1915, and Patrick Gallagher boards the Lusitania to escort a man back to Britain on treason charges. When a fellow passenger is found murdered, the Captain tasks Gallagher with solving the case. Can he do so before anyone else dies?

An interesting premise, setting a murder mystery on a ship that the reader already knows will be sunk before her arrival in Ireland. I spent the book wondering which characters would survive the torpedo attack, and who would die! I felt there were far too many characters introduced at once, and I couldn't keep track for a fair amount of the book. Once I got them straight, I felt it was obvious who the protagonists were, but enjoyed Gallagher coming to the same conclusions.

Clearly left open for another book involving Gallagher, I'd read it just to hear more about his background that was constantly hinted at during this book. Overall, an OK read, the information overload at points was a bit off putting.

Patrick Gallagher is escorting a British diplomat back to England to make sure he’s brought in to be investigated on charges of treason.

Meanwhile the First World War is happening and there was a troubling article in the paper before departure, Germany warning travelers sailing in the war zone on a ship of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.

But I’m sure everything will be fine…

When a passenger is find dead Gallagher is asked to investigate and find the killer before they reach land. Turns out everyone on board has secrets.

Love the era and setting, and genre so this really should have been my cup of tea but nope.

It was too slow paced for me and I never really got into it. I ended up googling when it was torpedoed and was looking forward to the Germans arriving.

Getting some Conrad Allen/Edward Marston vibes so if you like his books this one should be interesting.

2,5 rounding up

Agatha Christie meets The Titanic (ok not the Titanic, but The Lusitania - which in actual fact was also a real-life cruise ship that sank in 1915 losing 1199 passengers and crew).

This fascinating novel combines a murder mystery style thriller, with the actual historical tragedy of the ship's sinking. I'm sorry to admit I'd never heard of the Lusitania before reading this book, and i avoided googling it until after I'd finished it becauae i didn't want to spoilt what may or may not be coming in the story. After I'd finished though, I couldn't get enough and needed to research what had happened. The author stays quite loyal to the truth (minus the murder mystery) and it was fascinating reading about it afterwards.

The story follows Mr. Patrick Gallagher - a UK civil servant tasked with bringing a disgraced British Diplomat back from The US to the UK on board the ship during its final crossing. Whilst on board, a suspicious death occurs which arouses Mr. Gallgher's suspicions enough to agree with the Captain to investigate. Very similar in style to Death on the Nile/Murder on The Orient Express - a finite amount of characters; a locked room impossiblity and an ever unfurling series of secrets uncovered.

The ship is due to enter a 'war-zone' stretch of waters as it nears the coast of Ireland, and the passengers on board are terrified that The Germans will attack it due to a confusion about whether or not it is in breach of war regulations. The story is annotated by date, with a countdown to the entry to these waters so it feels like a constant race against the clock. Will Pat Gallgher solve the murder(s?) in time? Will R. L Graham stay true to the events and will the ship be sank? This one will keep you guessing until the end!

An interesting book especially knowing the history of the ship itself and a nice idea to have a murder mystery on board. However, while I finished it, I never really felt invested enough in any of the characters who might have been the culprit and there were many!
Personally, I felt more description was needed of the individual characters for me to be able to make a clearer definition between them. It was too easy to confuse them, especially the men.
A good solid mystery story with a nice twist.

Death on the Lusitania was a perfectly alright mystery, if quite dry and, really, the only thing that compelled me was finding out just what the solution to the mystery would be.

The story takes place, as you would expect, on the Lusitania. Now, if you have any knowledge of history around WWI, you might know what happened with the Lusitania. Of course, our characters don’t, so you have this strange situation where the authors are trying to play on your knowledge that the Lusitania is going to go down at the end of this, even as the characters don’t. Thus, you would expect this would create a certain amount of tension on top of that surrounding the actual murder mystery.

Only, guess what, it doesn’t!

Somehow, through all this, the book manages to be so incredibly dry that reading it was a slog. Even with the multiple POVs, each of them adding different dimensions to the crime, it was a slog. Mostly, though, this only serves to slow the narrative and, ultimately, it became a bit too unwieldy in the end. In an attempt to give everyone a plausible motive, the storyline became complex and the resolution equally so. Maybe I’m partly saying this because it came to such an unmemorable denouement for me. So many different players, trying to incorporate so many different aspects of world history, and, in the end, a forgettable conclusion.

This was, obviously, compounded by how forgettable the individual characters were too. There was the potential there for something interesting, of course, but with the blandness of the writing it never went anywhere. And that, really, is probably my main complaint here: it was bland. It was boring. It was unmemorable. Even the worldbuilding, thoroughly researched as it was, was dry.

So, while I did manage to get myself through this book (mainly to see how it was going to wrap up), it was with effort.

I was sent this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hearing about this book and seeing the cover really intrigued me. We follow Gallagher, an agent tasked with escorting a prisoner on the ship the Lusitania back to England. When a murder takes place aboard the ship. The captain asks Gallagher to lend his expertise to help crack the case before the murderer gets away or strikes again.

I found myself really struggling to get into this book. The bunch of characters (and potential suspects) weren't described well enough for me to distinguish who was who and what they looked like. I kept losing track of who Gallagher was talking to, and I didn't start being able to differentiate the characters until after halfway through the book.
I also didn't really feel connected with the Main Character Gallagher as he was such a mystery. There were questions about his past that kept getting thrown in my face but was never given any answers, too. If there was more depth and answers, then I feel that I would have sympathised more.

I liked the intrinsic way the mystery behind the murder was unveiled. But since not being able to distinguish who was who for a while really disconnected me and I wasn't full of anticipation to see who the killer was.

Overall, it was a really interesting premise, and you could tell that the author put quite a bit of research into the history behind the Lusitania. I just wish that I could have connected with the characters more.

This book easily got its hooks into me. I spent the entire book counting down the days and wondering if the author would play Dues Machina and scupper the sinking of the Lusitania (and no, I'm not going to give spoilers!). This air of tension fed into the murder mystery making the unravelling of the mystery all that more compelling. I kept thinking does the solution of the murder somehow save everyone from sinking? Gallagher, an "civil servant", who the story mainly revolves around is a complex character that draws you slowly in. You find yourself going 'oh no, I don't want him to sink to the bottom of the ocean, he needs a chance to find love again!' Likewise the other characters are equally drawn charismatically and you find yourself either rooting for them or wishing you could kick them in the shins. I definitely found myself wishing to kick Mr. Franklin repeatedly in the shins....I would highly recommend anyone who loves historical mystery or mystery in general to pick up this book, they will not be disappointed by either the mystery or the atmosphere building!

Possible spoilers


3.5 stars

A thoroughly enjoyable read.
Taking all the glitz and glamour of a liner crossing the waters(even into a war zone) and throw in a very big locked room mystery.
Someone died, and everyone's a suspect.
And not surprising really, they all seem to be hiding something.
The characters were all so tangled up I each others lives.
A great main character in Gallagher.
The tension picked up nicely throughout the book, and I sped to the end.


Really appreciated the history of the boat at the end too.