By: Max Allan Collins Publisher: Berkley Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Berkley Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 272 Publication Date: November 05, 2002
Product Description: On May 7, 1915, the luxury liner Lusitania was struck by a German torpedo. On board was an under-cover journalist using the pen name S.S. Van Dine. And hours before the tragic sinking changed the course of history, there was a mystery-of treason, sabotage, and murder.
Amazon.com Review: Historical mysteries grounded in fact and embellished with fiction are Collins's forte, and here he takes the World War I sinking of a great Cunard liner as the canvas for a rollicking story of murder, espionage, and mayhem. Willard Wright, a critic, journalist and mystery writer (under the pseudonym of S.S. Van Dine), is supposed to be interviewing the rich and famous who are making the journey to England on the luxurious ship. But what he's really doing is investigating the sub rosa shipment of munitions by a government supposedly neutral in the European conflict. Aided by a female version of Philo Vance, Van Dine's series hero, Wright unmasks a couple of spies and a murderer and finds the munitions in plenty of time to carry on a decidedly modern affair with the beautiful and sexy Pinkerton agent, but, alas, too late to save the Lusitania from a German U-boat. A skillfully told story with all the verisimilitude and historical accuracy of earlier books in this captivating series, which gave the Titanic, Hindenburg, and Pearl Harbor disasters the same lively treatment. --Jane Adams
Assemby-line mystery Throw-away stuff, but a fun way to pass the time and, as always in Collins' fictionalized "real-life disaster mystery" series, speculate about what really sank the Lusitania.
If I could just escape the perception that he cranks these out on an assembly line.
Good Mystery The author William Huntington Wright, traveling under his alias S.S.Van Dine (Wright and Van Dine are real people as are most of the characers in this book), is undercover for the British as a journalist on the last voyage of the Lusitania to discover if it is carrying munition for the enemy.
Along the way, he interviews the likes of Alfred Vanderbilt, Charles Forham and Elbert Hubbard. As expected, murders and espionage soon become all too common occurrences and Van Dine with the help of a female Pinkerton agent is rapidly engaged in the investigation.
The Lusitania Murders, judging by its author's notes (def. worth reading) is well-researched but lacking a tightness and suspense that keeps the reader flipping pages.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
