THE GLASS OCEAN by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White

Note: I am not a paid reviewer, and I have purchased this title to read for my personal enjoyment.

Sarah Blake is a writer in dire need of an advance and stumbles into long-lost family history pertaining to the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in 1915. Sensing a story for her next book, she travels to London and pursues high-born, but disgraced John Langford for Langford family records that will enable her to craft her novel. Flashbacks unfold a tale of espionage that rivals the popular theory that the RMS Lusitania may have been left exposed to German U-boats as a means to draw the United States into WW1. Great historical settings coupled with sharp pacing and twists of a thriller make this book a terrific read that was, unusually, written by a team of three authors. I had to smile as I envisioned these three writers, each acclaimed in her own right, sitting around with glasses of wine, tossing out deft turns of phrase (e.g., ’… a vast French Renaissance pile, the pale stone glowing in the electric streetlights, adorned with an abundance of tracery and, the odd gargoyle.’) and bloody perfect British slang (e.g., ‘sacked toff’ and ‘a full English’ – breakfast that is).