Thomas & Mercer
Featuring: Alice Stilwell; Jefferson Tayte
337 pages ISBN: 1477825835 EAN: 9781477825839 Kindle: B00K5HU3IC Paperback / e-Book Add to Wish List
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.
From acclaimed author Steve Robinson comes a bold new
Jefferson Tayte mystery.
On a foggy night in 1914, the ocean liner Empress of
Ireland
sank en route to England and now lies at the bottom of
Canada’s St Lawrence River. The disaster saw a loss of
life
comparable to the Titanic and the Lusitania, and yet her
tragedy has been forgotten.
When genealogist Jefferson Tayte is shown a locket
belonging
to one of the Empress’s victims, a British admiral’s
daughter named Alice Stilwell, he must travel to England
to
understand the course of events that led to her death.
Tayte is expert in tracking killers across centuries. In
The
Lost Empress, his unique talents draw him to one of the
greatest tragedies in maritime history as he unravels the
truth behind Alice’s death amidst a backdrop of pre-WWI
espionage.
This is the fourth book in the Jefferson Tayte mystery
series but can be enjoyed as a stand-alone story.
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