Just Finished Reading The Glass Ocean by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White

The Glass Ocean is a 2018 historical fiction novel written by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White.  Its focus is the May, 1915 doomed voyage of the passenger ship Lusitania, which was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-Boat off the coast of Ireland in the thick of World War I.  The narrative is divided between three protagonists and two times: writer Sarah Blake, with the burden of caring for her early-onset-Alzheimer's mother, is running out of money in 2013 as the proceeds of her book from five years earlier are drying up and she needs a new source of writing inspiration.  Opening up an old chest her mother was storing, Sarah discovers that her great-grandfather was employed as a steward on the Lusitania and died with it...and he left behind some papers that send her on a trail to England to unravel the mysteries surrounding that ship's last trip and demise.  The narrative shifts to 1915 and alternately...with occasional returns to 2013 and Sarah...describes the experiences of Lusitania passengers Caroline, a wealthy American industrialist's wife with a talent for the piano, and Tess, the daughter of a traveling con man who is now teaming up with her sister to commit a great forgery on the ship. The story has the name Langford to unite both eras: Robert in 1915, the dashing love interest of both women then, and his descendant John in 2013, whom Sarah has persuaded to help her with her investigation.  The authors inserted into their tale the notion that there was some significant wartime espionage going on during the ill-fated Atlantic crossing, with suspicion and fear abounding.  As with all historical fiction, I found myself wondering where the truth ended and the fiction began, finally deciding that my knowledge of the true events of the Lusitania sinking wouldn't be greatly enhanced by this tale and to simply treat this book as a good piece of adventure, mystery and romance fiction...which it was. It's not a very long book, and I think you'd enjoy it, too...