The Girl on the Carpathia: A Novel of the Titanic
The Girl on the Carpathia is the story of a young woman on the ship that saved victims of the Titanic disaster. Kate is a mystery. She knows about disaster and the ensuing loss and devastation wrought on one person’s world, which is why she has ended up as a governess to a family on the way to Europe. And now her fortunes change for better, and for worse. Helping the survivors, she overhears conversations that embroil her directly with the investigation into the sinking.
You think you’ve read all there is about the Titanic, but this is a new take, and it’s good, very good for a self-published writer. The scenes aboard the rescue ship and the sight of the wreckage are fresh and moving, and even if the courtroom drama of the inquest has been done before, it still holds the attention.
What could be better is the construction—and a good editor could pull this novel apart and make it something highly publishable. As it is, points of view appear too fast and furious, so we lose one character just as another comes in, and you long to get back to Kate. Overcome that if you can; it’s worth it. The major flaw for such a well-researched novel is one I find all too often in historical fiction: the use of titles. Nobody addresses an English Countess of X as “Countess,” but as Lady X, and so on.
