The Glass Ocean

Karen White, Lauren Willig, Beatriz Williams — 2018

From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Forgotten Room comes a captivating historical mystery, infused with romance, that links the lives of three women across a century—two deep in the past, one in the present—to the doomed passenger liner, RMS Lusitania. May 2013 Her finances are in dire straits and bestselling author Sarah Blake is struggling to find a big idea for her next book. Desperate, she breaks the one promise she made to her Alzheimer’s-stricken mother and opens an old chest that belonged to her great-grandfather, who died when the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-Boat in 1915. What she discovers there could change history. Sarah embarks on an ambitious journey to England to enlist the help of John Langford, a recently disgraced Member of Parliament whose family archives might contain the only key to the long-ago catastrophe. . . . April 1915 Southern belle Caroline Telfair Hochstetter’s marriage is in crisis. Her formerly attentive industrialist husband, Gilbert, has become remote, pre-occupied with business . . . and something else that she can’t quite put a finger on. She’s hoping a trip to London in Lusitania’s lavish first-class accommodations will help them reconnect—but she can’t ignore the spark she feels for her old friend, Robert Langford, who turns out to be on the same voyage. Feeling restless and longing for a different existence, Caroline is determined to stop being a bystander, and take charge of her own life. . . . Tessa Fairweather is traveling second-class on the Lusitania, returning home to Devon. Or at least, that’s her story. Tessa has never left the United States and her English accent is a hasty fake. She’s really Tennessee Schaff, the daughter of a roving con man, and she can steal and forge just about anything. But she’s had enough. Her partner has promised that if they can pull off this one last heist aboard the Lusitania, they’ll finally leave the game behind. Tess desperately wants to believe that, but Tess has the uneasy feeling there’s something about this job that isn’t as it seems. . . . As the Lusitania steams toward its fate, three women work against time to unravel a plot that will change the course of their own lives . . . and history itself.

Reviews

Gisela Ayala @giselasmusings

Sep 7, 2022

I loved Sarah and Tessa's storylines the best. Sarah's digging and researching into the past is interesting and Tessa is such a great character. Since we all know what happens with the ship, listening to the book and to Tessa and Caroline's stories felt urgent even though it probably didn't feel that way to the respective characters. Narrator was great!

Kayla @kaylasbookishlife

Dec 6, 2021

Espionage, Impersonation, Secrets is what awaits those boarding the Lusitania in 1915. Oh my this book! I was nervous about reading a historical fiction written by three authors but I loved it! I have their next book from the library. I haven’t read anything about the sinking of the Lusitania before and really didn’t know that much about it. I found it to be the perfect setting for whirlwind of a story and I felt as though I was on board trying to piece together the mysteries before it was too late. WWI is my favourite time period for a historical fiction. I love books with spies and secret codes too, it just makes for an enthralling story. I loved each character in this book—we follow three women—and I felt like the flip from present day to the past was seamless. One timeline did not move way ahead of the next so you aren’t spoiled anything as you are trying to figure it out.