Hidden Depths
Orphans of the Storm 
Women and Children First
On The Edge of Daylight
The Deep
No Greater Love
The Titanic Secret
The Candle Man
The Second Mrs. Astor
The Girl Who Came Home
Every Man for himself
The Titanic Sisters
The Midnight Watch by David Dyer
The Seventh Passenger
The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn
Spirit of the Titanic by Nicola Pierce
Kaspar: The Prince of Cats
Luck of the TitanicCozy crime set in SIDMOUTH, Devon
Ten Great Books set aboard THE TITANIC
27th April 2022
Ten Great Books set aboard THE TITANIC
RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner operated by the White Star Line that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912, after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. It is estimated that of the 2,224 passengers, 1,500 died. The whole tragic event has become the stuff of legend and myth and has inspired both films and novels. Here we curate a short list of books. where authors have used the setting and tragedy to full advantage to create unique stories. Five great books set aboard the Titanic.
Hidden Depths by Araminta Hall
Passenger…
Lily is pregnant, travelling on the Titanic with her husband, her maid and her doctor so that she can have her baby near to her beloved family in the United States.
But her husband is not the man he’s pretending to be. And Lily is not safe.
So when she meets widower Lawrence on board, she knows he’s her final chance for help.
Or Prisoner?
But Lawrence knows he hasn’t the time to save Lily. He’s decided to end his life.
Meaning Lawrence is the only person onboard the unsinkable ship who knows that he will not disembark in New York.
Can Lily and Lawrence help each other to safety before it’s too late?
Orphans of the Storm by Celia Imrie
Nice, France, 1911: After three years of marriage, young seamstress Marcela Caretto has finally had enough. Her husband, Michael, an ambitious tailor, has become cruel and controlling and she determines to get a divorce.
But while awaiting the judges’ decision on the custody of their two small boys, Michael receives news that changes everything.
Meanwhile fun-loving New York socialite Margaret Hays is touring Europe with some friends. Restless, she resolves to head home aboard the most celebrated steamer in the world – RMS Titanic.
As the ship sets sail for America, carrying two infants bearing false names, the paths of Marcela, Michael and Margaret cross – and nothing will ever be the same again.
Promise Me This by Cathy Gohike
Michael Dunnagan was never supposed to sail on the “Titanic,” nor would he have survived if not for the courage of Owen Allen. Determined to carry out his promise to care for Owen’s relatives in America and his younger sister, Annie, in England, Michael works hard to strengthen the family’s New Jersey garden and landscaping business. Annie Allen doesn’t care what Michael promised Owen. She only knows that her brother is gone–like their mother and father–and the grief is enough to swallow her whole. As Annie struggles to navigate life without Owen, Michael reaches out to her through letters. In time, as Annie begins to lay aside her anger that Michael lived when Owen did not, a tentative friendship takes root and blossoms into something neither expected. Just as Michael saves enough money to bring Annie to America, WWI erupts in Europe. When Annie’s letters mysteriously stop, Michael risks everything to fulfill his promise–and find the woman he’s grown to love–before she’s lost forever.
Women and Children First by Gill Paul
It is 1912. Against all odds, the Titanic is sinking.
As desperate hands emerge from the icy water, a few lucky row boats float in the darkness. On the boats are four survivors.
Reg, a handsome young steward working in the first-class dining room; Annie, an Irishwoman travelling to America with her children; Juliet, a titled English lady who is pregnant and unmarried, and George, a troubled American millionaire.
In the wake of the tragedy, each of these people must try to rebuild their lives.
But how can life ever be the same again when you’ve heard over a thousand people dying in the water around you?
Haunting, emotional and beautifully written, Women and Children First breathes fresh life into the most famous disaster of the 20th century.
On The Edge of Daylight by Giselle Beaumont
Esther Bailey is Titanic’s newest recruit and first female officer. Although she’s braced herself for the duties ahead, she never expected to clash with her own mentor, First Officer Murdoch.
His cool dismissal of her only turns colder as they bicker throughout their forced partnership, with Esther’s short temper challenging his own. But as Esther begins to earn her mentor’s respect, blurring the line between subordinate and superior, she and Murdoch find themselves questioning what matters most: their careers . . . or the feelings they’re hiding from each other. As tragedy unfolds around them, will they overcome the sinking together and live to see daylight?
Blending fact with fiction, On the Edge of Daylight is a heart-wrenching historical romance that tells a different story of the RMS Titanic through the eyes of the crew, and shows the duty, loyalty, and sacrifice of two officers who were never supposed to fall for each other.
The Deep by Alma Katsu
Someone – or something – is haunting the Titanic.
Deaths and disappearances have plagued the vast liner from the moment she began her maiden voyage on 10 April 1912. Four days later, caught in what feels like an eerie, unsettling twilight zone, some passengers – including millionaire Madeleine Astor and maid Annie Hebbley – are convinced that something sinister is afoot. And then disaster strikes.
Four years later and the world is at war. Having survived that fateful night, Annie is now a nurse on board the Titanic’s sister ship, the Britannic, refitted as a hospital ship. And she is about to realise that those demons from her past and the terrors of that doomed voyage have not finished with her yet . . .
Bringing together Faustian pacts, the occult, tales of sirens and selkies, guilt and revenge, desire and destiny, The Deep offers a thrilling, tantalizing twist on one of the world’s most famous tragedies.
No Greater Love by Danielle Steel
April, 1912. Edwina Winfield is returning to New York from her engagement trip to England with her fiancé, Charles, her parents and her five siblings. Deeply in love, she and Charles are looking forward to beginning their new life together. They are travelling on the maiden voyage of the greatest ship ever built: the SMS Titanic.
But in one fatal night, Edwina’s life is changed for ever.
Mourning the loss of the man she loves, Edwina is left to care for her brothers and sisters alone.Somehow, she must find a way to deal with the terrible tragedy and learn to free herself from the ghosts of those she loved and lost on the Titanic…
The Titanic Secret by James Becker
Was it really an iceberg that sunk the Titanic? Or is that just what they want you to think?
On Sunday 15 April 1912, the ‘unsinkable’ RMS Titanic sinks on her maiden voyage to New York. But the truth is quickly suppressed.
On board she carries three men scheming to create a new military alliance between the USA and Germany. Their goal – war with Great Britain and the destruction of the British Empire. Alex Tremayne and his American colleague Maria Weston are sent by British Intelligence to stop the spies, and with them the greatest war in history.
A Maiden’s Voyage by Rosie Goodwin
Thursday’s child has far to go . . .
1912, London.
Eighteen-year-old Flora Butler is going up in the world. She has the prized position of lady’s maid to young Constance Ogilvie, and is able to provide for her beloved parents and four younger siblings. She has even fallen in love, and though she does not feel quite ready to marry the charming Jamie Branning, her future seems clear.
But Flora’s life is turned upside down when her mistress’s father dies in a tragic accident. Connie is forced to move to New York to live with her aunt until she comes of age, and begs Flora to go with her. Flora has never left the country before, and now faces a difficult decision – give up her position, or leave her family behind. But when her beau lets her down, her mind is made up.
The Candle Man by Alex Scarrow
Jack the Ripper’s London…an eerily quiet dining room on the Titanic…and a series of murders that covers two decades.
1912. Locked in an eerily quiet dining room on the Titanic, a mysterious man tells a young girl his life story as the ship begins to sink. It all starts in Whitechapel, London in 1888…
In the small hours of the night in a darkened Whitechapel alley, young Mary Kelly stumbles upon a man who has been seriously injured and is almost unconscious in the gutter. Mary – down on her luck and desperate to survive – steals his bag and runs off into the night.
Two days later, an American gentleman wakes in a hospital bed with no memory of who he is or how he got there. He has suffered a serious head injury, and with no one to help him remember who he is he starts to wonder how he will ever find his way home.
One terrible truth links these two lost souls in the dark world of Victorian London – a truth that could ruin the name of the most influential man in the land…
Back in 1912, as the Titanic begins its final shuddering descent to the bottom of the frozen, black Atlantic, one man is about to reveal the truth behind a series of murders that have hung like a dark fog over London for more than two decades…the identity of Jack the Ripper.
On a voyage bristling with intrigue, Alex and Maria have one aim: to stop the conspirators from reaching America – at any cost…
BONUS BOOKS
The Second Mrs. Astor by Shana Abe
Madeleine Talmage Force is just seventeen when she attracts the attention of John Jacob “Jack” Astor. Madeleine is beautiful, intelligent, and solidly upper-class, but the Astors are in a league apart. Jack’s mother was the Mrs. Astor, American royalty and New York’s most formidable socialite. Jack is dashing and industrious—a hero of the Spanish-American war, an inventor, and a canny businessman. Despite their twenty-nine-year age difference, and the scandal of Jack’s recent divorce, Madeleine falls headlong into love—and becomes the press’s favorite target.
On their extended honeymoon in Egypt, the newlyweds finally find a measure of peace from photographers and journalists. Madeleine feels truly alive for the first time—and is happily pregnant. The couple plans to return home in the spring of 1912, aboard an opulent new ocean liner. When the ship hits an iceberg close to midnight on April 14th, there is no immediate panic. The swift, state-of-the-art RMS Titanic seems unsinkable. As Jack helps Madeleine into a lifeboat, he assures her that he’ll see her soon in New York…
Four months later, at the Astors’ Fifth Avenue mansion, a widowed Madeleine gives birth to their son. In the wake of the disaster, the press has elevated her to the status of virtuous, tragic heroine. But Madeleine’s most important decision still lies ahead: whether to accept the role assigned to her, or carve out her own remarkable path…
The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor
Inspired by true events, the New York Times bestselling novel The Girl Who Came Home is the poignant story of a group of Irish emigrants aboard RMS Titanic—a seamless blend of fact and fiction that explores the tragedy’s impact and its lasting repercussions on survivors and their descendants.
Ireland, 1912. Fourteen members of a small village set sail on RMS Titanic, hoping to find a better life in America. For seventeen-year-old Maggie Murphy, the journey is bittersweet. Though her future lies in an unknown new place, her heart remains in Ireland with Séamus, the sweetheart she left behind. When disaster strikes, Maggie is one of the lucky few passengers in steerage who survives. Waking up alone in a New York hospital, she vows never to speak of the terror and panic of that terrible night ever again.
Chicago, 1982. Adrift after the death of her father, Grace Butler struggles to decide what comes next. When her Great Nana Maggie shares the painful secret she harbored for almost a lifetime about the Titanic, the revelation gives Grace new direction—and leads her and Maggie to unexpected reunions with those they thought lost long ago.
Every Man for himself by Beryl Bainbridge
For the four fraught, mysterious days of her doomed maiden voyage in 1912, the Titanic sails towards New York, glittering with luxury, freighted with millionaires and hopefuls. In her labyrinthine passageways the last, secret hours of a small group of passengers are played out, their fate sealed in prose of startling, sublime beauty, as Beryl Bainbridge’s haunting masterpiece moves inexorably to its known and terrible end.
The Titanic Sisters by Patricia Falvey
To follow her dreams, she must sacrifice everything…
Sisters Nora and Delia have been given the chance of a lifetime – to escape their poor Irish farm and travel on the Titanic to a new life in America. Nora is to become a treasured governess for a rich family, while Delia has only a lowly maid’s position.
But when disaster strikes, and Nora dies, a small misunderstanding leads to Delia taking Nora’s place as governess. As Delia grows closer to her charge, and the girl’s father, will she be able to reveal the truth to find a chance at happiness? And what will happen when she finds out that Nora is actually alive, and coming to take what is rightfully hers…?
The Midnight Watch by David Dyer
On a black night in April 1912, 1,500 passengers and crew perish as the Titanicslowly sinks beneath the freezing waters of the North Atlantic. Charting the same perilous course through the icebergs is the SS Californian, close enough for her crew to see the eight white distress rockets fired by the Titanic. Yet the Californianfails to act, and later her crew insist that they saw nothing.
As news of the disaster spreads throughout America, journalists begin a feeding frenzy, desperate for stories. John Steadman is one such reporter, a man broken by alcoholism, grief and a failed marriage. Steadman senses blood as he fixates on the Californian, and his investigation reveals a tense and perplexing relationship between the ship’s captain and second officer, who hold the secrets of what occurred that night. Slowly he peels back the layers of deception, and his final, stunning revelation of what happened while the Titanic sank will either redeem the men of the Californian or destroy them.
The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott
Torn between her dreams and the truth, she was faced with an impossible choice . . .
Tess, an aspiring seamstress, is stunned at her luck when the famous designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon hires her to be a personal maid on the Titanic‘s doomed voyage. When disaster strikes, Tess is one of the last people allowed on a lifeboat – her employer also survives. On dry land, savage rumours begin to circulate: did Lady Duff Gordon save herself at the expense of others?
Tess’s dream of becoming a skilled dressmaker is within her grasp but now she is faced with a terrible choice. Suddenly she finds herself torn between loyalty to the fiery woman who could help her realise her ambitions and the devastating truth that her mentor may not be all she seems.
Authentic and honest, The Dressmaker is a compelling and vivid story that will have you holding your breath until the last page.
The Seventh Passenger by Angie Rowe
When the Titanic sinks it takes with it the crime scene, the witnesses and possibly the murderer.
The Titanic’s last stop is at Queenstown, Ireland, where seven first-class passengers disembark.
Soon after continuing its voyage, the body of a man linked to the doomed liner is fished from the water – murdered.
With the crime scene now at the bottom of the ocean, District Inspector Lorcan O’Dowd’s only clue to the identity of the killer is through the seven passengers.
He follows their trail to London and China, slowly piecing together the life of the dead man. A woman is charged with murder, but O’Dowd isn’t convinced. He’s determined to find the real killer.
The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn
In the chaos of that terrible night, her secret went down with the Titanic. But secrets have a way of floating to the surface…
Trapped in an unhappy aristocratic marriage, Elinor Coombes sees only lonely days ahead of her. So a present from her father – tickets for the maiden voyage of a huge, luxurious new ship called the Titanic – offers a welcome escape from the cold, controlling atmosphere of her husband’s ancestral home, and some precious time with her little son, Teddy.
When the ship goes down, Elinor realises the disaster has given her a chance to take Teddy and start a new life – but only if they can disappear completely, listed as among the dead. Penniless and using another woman’s name, she has to learn to survive in a world that couldn’t be more different from her own, and keep their secret safe.
An uplifting story about grabbing your chances with both hands, and being brave enough to find out who you really are.
And for children/YA….
Spirit of the Titanic by Nicola Pierce
Fifteen-year-old Samuel Scott died while building the Titanic. As the ship sails to her doom, his ghost moves restlessly alongside the passengers and crew: Frederick Fleet: the young look-out who spotted the iceberg and who survived in a life-boat with (the unsinkable) Molly Brown; Howard Hartley Wallace: the heroic band-leader who played ragtime music as the freezing waters lapped at his feet; Harold Bride: the junior radio operator whose messages echoed on, long after the ship had disappeared to its icy grave …
Kaspar: The Prince of Cats by Michael Morpurgo
Kaspar the cat first came to the Savoy Hotel in a basket – Johnny Trott knows, because he was the one who carried him in. Johnny was a bell-boy, you see, and he carried all of Countess Kandinsky’s things to her room.
But Johnny didn’t expect to end up with Kaspar on his hands forever, and nor did he count on making friends with Lizziebeth, a spirited American heiress. Pretty soon, events are set in motion that will take Johnny – and Kaspar – all around the world, surviving theft, shipwreck and rooftop rescues along the way. Because everything changes with a cat like Kaspar around. After all, he’s Prince Kaspar Kandinsky, Prince of Cats, a Muscovite, a Londoner and a New Yorker, and as far as anyone knows, the only cat to survive the sinking of the Titanic…
The Titanic Detective Agency by Lindsay Littleson
Unlock the secrets of the unsinkable ship…
Bertha Watt, tree-climber and would-be polar explorer, is excited to be on RMS Titanic’s maiden voyage, as she leaves Aberdeen behind for the glamour of a new life in America.
But Bertha quickly realises that some passengers are behaving strangely, and she determines to unravel their secrets. With new friend, Madge, Bertha sets up her own detective agency to try and solve the mysteries onboard, but they have no idea that disaster is looming for Titanic.
Can they help Johan find the hidden treasure and unmask the identity of the enigmatic Mr Hoffman before time runs out on the ‘unsinkable’ ship?
Luck of the Titanic by Stacey Lee
Valora Luck has two things: a ticket for the biggest and most luxurious ocean liner in the world, and a dream of leaving England behind and making a life for herself as a circus performer in New York. Much to her surprise though, she’s turned away at the gangway; apparently, Chinese people aren’t allowed into America.
But Val has to get on that ship. Her twin brother Jamie, who has spent two long years at sea, is there, as is an influential circus owner, whom Val hopes to audition for. Thankfully, there’s not much a trained acrobat like Val can’t overcome when she puts her mind to it.
As a stowaway, Val should keep her head down and stay out of sight. But the clock is ticking and she has just seven days as the ship makes its way across the Atlantic to find Jamie, perform for the circus owner, and convince him to help get them both into America.
Then one night the unthinkable happens, and suddenly Val’s dreams of a new life are crushed under the weight of the only thing that matters: survival.
Do you know of any great titles we should add? Leave your thoughts in the Comments below
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I would definitely add the brilliant Spirit of the Titanic by Nicola Pierce. The ghost of fifteen-year-old Samuel Scott moves restlessly aboard the Titanic as she sails to her doom in 1912. For children but enjoyed by everyone!