Death on the Lusitania

R.L. Graham

THE sinking of the luxury passenger liner, RMS Lusitania, by a German U-boat as it sailed from New York to Liverpool in 1915 led to the loss of 1,200 lives and caused international outrage on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Lusitania – which had been specially built to be easily converted to a warship – was torpedoed and sunk without warning, and its final voyage has become notorious in maritime history... an event harnessed by R.L. Graham, aka a husband-and-wife team of historians and writers, for a thrilling Agatha Christie-inspired First World War murder mystery starring British government mandarin Patrick Gallagher.

This exciting authorial duo are very much drawn to the shadowy world of crime, espionage and political intrigue, and this fast-paced, thrills-and-spills adventure – based loosely on events on board the ship – expertly blends rich historical detail and a locked-room mystery with the very real pathos of Lusitania’s haunting last sailing. In New York in 1915, RMS Lusitania, one of the world’s most luxurious ocean liners, departs for war-torn Europe. Among those on board is Patrick Gallagher, a civil servant in His Majesty’s government who has been tasked with escorting a British diplomat back to England.

When fellow passenger James Dowrich ­– a former Royal Navy officer returning from the States to do his ‘bit’ for the war effort – is believed to have shot himself in his cabin, Gallagher is asked by the captain to investigate the scene. And he soon finds that one crucial detail doesn’t fit... the man’s body was discovered in a locked cabin with the key inside and no gun can be found. Was it really suicide... or murder?

Gallagher believes one of the passengers is a deadly killer, one who could strike again at any moment to protect their true reasons for being on board. And all the while, the ship sails on towards Europe, where deadly enemy submarines patrol dark waters...

Death on the Lusitania is a page-turning Golden Age delight, packed with the atmospherics and clever, complex plotting of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, and delivers all the enticing twists, turns, intriguing suspects and red herrings that make murder mysteries a perennial favourite. Leading the action, and providing the important ‘little grey cells’ investigative skills, is the wily operator Patrick Gallagher, a wise and more than competent civil servant-cum-detective with a military and police service history, and still haunted by a very personal lost love.

Set against the febrile backdrop of the first twelve months of the Great War, and on the eve of Germany’s abandonment of ‘prize rules’ – under which U-boats would surface before attacking merchant ships, allowing passengers and crew to escape – this is a shipboard thriller with a truly chilling undertow. And with the added poignancy of not just the last hours of Lusitania and its passengers, but also the death from cancer of Marilyn Livingstone – one half of R.L. Graham – during the writing of this book, it is heartening to learn that Gallagher is set to return next year in The Spies of Hartlake Hall.
(Pan, paperback, £9.99)