Jefferson Tayte is north of Quebec, visiting a centenary exhibition regarding the sinking of the RMS Empress of Ireland following a collision. She went down with more passengers than were lost on the Titanic, plus many crew. Jefferson is tracing one passenger of THE LOST EMPRESS - Alice Stilwell, the grandmother of a client of his genealogy business. According to his client, she lived for many years after being recorded as drowned.

This Jefferson Tayte Genealogical Mystery is fourth in the lively series. We learn that Jefferson has had an exciting time tracing his own family tree, and the hunt took him away from his romantic interest. Then we step back in time to North Holland in 1914, when war is in the air. Alice Stilwell accompanies her husband Henry and their two children on a business trip. Alice is English and her husband is from New York. As Henry is 'new money' and American, her own family are less than delighted with the match. Henry and the children are abducted and Alice is forced to do the bidding of chilling strangers in the pay of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Jefferson has barely begun to make headway in Kent, southeast England, when his car is forced off the road. Maybe someone would rather old secrets stayed hidden. Or could the trouble be more recent? The man he was hoping to see has been murdered within the past fortnight, in an apparent break-in. The local police believe that this is too much of a coincidence and allow Jefferson to pursue his enquiries and report to them.

I enjoyed a trip, courtesy of Alice, around the shipyards on the Medway where in 1914 submarines and cruisers are being constructed. I also liked seeing Jefferson cross- reference sources such as newspaper obituaries of everyone in a group photo, aided by English lass Davina Scanlon. A confusing factor is how Alice is accompanied by her children again... while all her adventures are told with great drama, their return occurs in a couple of understated lines, easily missed. I had to go back and read a few pages again to make sure. I found some of the happenings difficult to swallow, but this is a work of fiction so anything is possible. Steve Robinson has composed an entertaining read around a real and scary situation, so THE LOST EMPRESS should appeal to fans of genealogy, historical crime and even understated romance.