Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

A very well composed narrative. Since this is a work of non-fiction, there are so many more names and places that come into play then when reading a work of fiction. However, at least if read over a short period of time, Larson writes in a way that it is overall easy to follow along the jumping between different locations and groups. (Often if a person had not been mentioned for some time he included some extra detail or description to help readers recall the person being talked about) He also shows the complexity of the situations - planting the Lusitania solidly within it's historical context - but does so in a way that doesn't take a high level of expertise to grasp.
Towards the end, some of the descriptions are a bit hard to read through, because he paints such a vivid scene. Yet he does it without going into great graphic detail, either. ( )

The story at first seemed to drag and it was hard to keep the characters straight, but during and after the sinking of the ship, the book came together in an exciting way. It was interesting to learn how calm most people were in the face of this terrible tragedy and it raised some historical questions that I found perplexing. ( )

The intriguing story of the sinking of the Lusitania and the circumstances that put it in harms way on May 7, 1915. Larson tells the story of the Lusitania's crew and passengers as well as the captain and crew of U-20 the German U-Boat that sunk the Lusitania, along with fascinating information about Winston Churchill, his second in command Jackie Fisher, and President Wilson and how they approached each other and the treat of German U-Boats to allied and American ships. Full of interesting details of transatlantic steam ships as well as details specific to the Lusitania herself, information about the passengers and the reasons that they decided to (or not to) travel on the Lusitania to England as well as the world reaction to the sinking of such a high profile ship. I also found the information that the British Admiralty knew but didn't share, in hopes of keeping the depth of their code breaking and message interception activities and knowledge secret, fascinating and even a little suspect given how much many of allies wanted the US to get into WWI. I would give this book 3.5 stars of Goodreads allowed half stars.
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It's like listening to a fiction. Amazing how the story is told. ( )

historical, detailed, personal