On A Cold Dark Sea: the story of three women and their fateful decisions

On a Cold Dark Sea by Elizabeth Blackwell is a story of the impossible choices we made when faced with tragedy. On April 15, 1912, three women were among survivors in Lifeboat 21 and watched in horror as the unsinkable Titanic sank into the icy depths of the Atlantic ocean. Con artist Charlotte Digby lied her way through London and onto the Titanic. The disaster provided the chance at a new life and she is determined to keep her past a secret. Esme Harper is a newlywed, returning to America from her honeymoon. On the night of the sinking, she makes a sudden choice that would change her life forever. Anna Halversson, a Swedish farm girl, is tormented by the screams that rang out from the water. Did one of them call her name? After the tragedy, the three women went their separate ways, never speaking about the events of that night. Twenty years later, a sudden death brings them back together, forcing them to face the choices they made that night, the inconceivable loss and the secrets they kept all those years.  

I have been fascinated by the Titanic sinking since high school. On a Cold Dark Sea is a different story featuring the famous tragedy. It didn’t rehash why the sinking happened but told what happened from three different perspectives, from the different classes aboard the ship. It is a story of three very different women from very different backgrounds brought together by a series of events. I enjoyed the story as there was no clear hero/heroine or villain. Each of the three women had reasons to carry a guilty conscience. Did their actions that night cause the death of someone they knew on the ship? The characters were written as real people with real decisions and real consequences. The secrets that publicly would have ruined them as well as ate away at their souls. One character laments that her decision for one man over another was “her greatest love and her greatest disappointment.” Even after 109 years since the tragedy, the events on the Titanic and the aftermath still captures our attention. I highly, highly recommend On a Cold, Dark Sea. 

 

On a Cold Dark Sea is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook.