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In April of 1915, the Cunard luxury liner, The Lusitania, sailed from New York City into history. Although the story of this ship is not as popular as that of the Titanic, we know that the Lusitania, or "The Big Lucy" as frequent travelers called her, was sunk off the coast of Ireland with a great loss of life. The huge ship was hit by a German torpedo, and suffered an even larger secondary explosion of undetermined origin which caused it to sink in less than 30 minutes. Max Allan Collins has worked his usual magic by taking a real individual, the mystery writer S. S. Van Dine, (pseudonym for Willard Huntington Wright) and placing him in the midst of a real-life tragedy. While Van Dine did not sail on its fatal voyage, he had been a passenger on the Lusitania just four months previously when he had returned from Europe with his artist brother. In this fictional version of events, the author places Van Dine on the ship in an under-cover position. He is there ostensibly as a journalist attempting to interview a group of the rich and famous passengers, but in reality he is hoping to discover for his publisher whether or not the ship is carrying munitions to England. The U.S. is still neutral and doing so would violate various conventions of neutrality. One of the first people Van Dine encounters soon after boarding is the Pinkerton agent, Philomena Vance. Miss Vance is the only purely fictitious character in the book and even she is based upon a real life Pinkerton agent who sailed aboard the Lusitania. Their paths cross several times and they soon realize that each of them is on a covert mission of sorts and they join forces. They are together when the three German stowaways, catalyst for the subsequent mysterious happenings, are discovered. While the ultimate fate of the ship is known, there is still plenty of suspense in the story. The author has woven his two detectives - Van Dine and Vance - seamlessly into the lives and actions of the well-known passengers, such as Alfred Vanderbilt, Elbert Hubbard and theatrical producer, Charles Frohman. As a passenger in first class, Van Dine has easy access to all of the "names" on board and they are all characters in this novel. His cover as a journalist gives him the excuse of speaking to many of the passengers when he and his partner begin investigating the murders that occur aboard the ship. Mr. Collins has given the readers a snapshot of the events that occurred during the voyage. His skills as a writer and a researcher has made history come alive and he has also written a first rate mystery. Max Allan Collins is a prolific writer, the long-running Nate Heller series places his P.I. in situations with real people and he has also written several historical novels using Golden Age mystery writers as his protagonists.
Reviewed by Lorraine Gelly, August 2002
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