Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Dead Wake:The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

Released: March 10th, 2015 (first released March 3rd, 2015)
Publisher: Crown
Page Amount: 448, US Hardcover edition
Source: Review

"On May 1, 1915, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were anxious. Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone, and for months, its U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era's great transatlantic "Greyhounds" and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. He knew, moreover, that his ship--the fastest then in service--could outrun any threat. 

Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger's U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small--hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more--all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history.

It is a story that many of us think we know but don't, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour, mystery, and real-life suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope Riddle to President Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love. Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster that helped place America on the road to war. "
-Goodreads.com

My Thoughts:
I received this book from Blogging For Books, exchange for an honest review.

I am a history buff. I was intrigued to look more about the Lusitania. However the chapters in between about President Wilson and about the submarine weren't my favorite parts.

It was heartbreaking reading about the moment The ship sank and all those lives lost. However there was warning signs that something could happen if they went in those waters.

I am glad to have read this novel. There parts like I said Didn't care for but all in all it was a good read

I'm giving this 3/5 stars.
Happy Reading, Ashley.

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