Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson - 4 stars

[Hebah]

Narrative nonfiction isn't a genre I gravitate toward, but I'm always pleasantly surprised how invested I get when I do read a nonfiction book. I knew Erik Larson is one of those authors with a ready fanbase, and while he's probably best known for The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, I could see from Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania why he has the following he does.

Most of us know already that the sinking of the Lusitania helped nudge the United States into World War I, but that didn't prevent this from being a suspenseful book. Larson sets up the bigger picture of the beginning of the war and German tactics as well as more individual portraits of figures including President Wilson, the captains of the respective U-20 submarine and Lusitania, and some of the ship's passengers. For a good chunk of the book, he alternates between the two vessels, drawing them ever closer to the fateful (and fatal) encounter and weaving that together with a reconstruction of the Lusitania's voyage told through the recollections of survivors. The balance between the human element and explaining things like how submarines traveled, for example, is well done. I'd read more by him in the future, I think.

Read in audio, and it was a good delivery in that format too.

[Joanne]

He is one of my go to authors-I just read The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz-really great!

[Karin]

I keep meaning to read another by him. I listened to the audiobook of Dead Wake and really liked it, and an IRL friend (as in didn't meet online or through GR) said that isn't even his best book.

The audio brought the rating up.