Elinor Hayward and her rich, widowed father, a textile millionaire known as the cotton king, are surprised and thrilled to be invited to a high-society ball. Mr. Hayward is a self-made man—the horror!—instead of having been born to wealth like those who usually snub him. At the ball, shy Elinor is rescued by Frederick Coombes, AKA Lord Storton, who seems interested. As is the way in 1910 upper-class London, a formal courtship is soon followed by marriage. Elinor expects a romantic whirlwind like in the Jane Austen novels she adores, but right from the lackluster proposal, things are off, and after they marry, things only get worse. Frederick has no interest in his wife, except as a vessel for the all-important heir. When the couple and Elinor’s father finally board the Titanic along with their baby, it seems like a welcome break from the rules, but we all know what happens. The characterization here is superb. Readers will root for Elinor before she ever arrives on board and will be rapt as she’s thrown into peril while the nightmare unfolds (Quinn offers a wealth of details about the disaster and its aftermath). What follows—Elinor taking the chance to remake herself, always struggling and waiting to be discovered—is also gripping, and this is one of those books that will leave readers bereft once it’s over. A triumph, and surely a movie must be in the works.
