Seven Days in May

It would have helped if I had like any of the characters.

Kim Izzo's Seven Days in May is essentially two mini-stories revolving around the Lusitania, with the characters in each never meeting, intersecting, or even passing, excuse the pun, like ships in the night.

Brooke and Sydney Sinclair are two of New York's wealthiest and most eligible heiresses. Brooke has fulfilled her heart's desire in landing a young, English "aristo" who will give her the title she so desires. Her younger sister, Sydney, tends toward the more political activities of the day, namely women's suffrage and family planning. Of course, they get along like oil and water, such that Sydney, upon boarding the Lusitania, forgoes their joint suite and books herself into third class for the voyage to England - and Brooke's wedding. The arrangement must be concealed from the future earl, Edward Thorpe-Tracey, lest he be too scandalized to follow through with the marriage. (Spoiler alert: He does find out, and is far more intrigued by Sydney's feisty independence than scandalized by her "outrageous" act.)

Simultaneously, Isabel Nelson, has earned her way into work in the highly secretive Room 40, where she works alongside a cadre of high-ranking men from the British Admiralty decoding intercepted German messages. In this capacity, she has access to top-secret communications, including many about the Lusitania; she routinely frets over matters far beyond her pay grade and even second-guesses Churchill. Thanks to any number of clumsily dropped clues, the reader figures out pretty early that Isabel has a secret past. Her past feels like the most contrived part of Seven Days in May and together with her meddling in things that she clearly shouldn't, renders her the most unbearable of the characters, in my ever humble estimation.

In the end, I had two major complaints:

1) Seven Days in May was inspired by true events. Izzo's great-grandfather did sail on the Lusitania (and survived to tell the tale). He appears in the highly likeable person of Walter Dawson (Izzo's grandfather's name, in fact). Dawson is a third class passenger whom Sydney befriends; focusing more on him and less on the simpering Brooke and out-for-battle Sydney would only have improved the narrative.

2) It feels like Izzo had two stories she wanted to tell here, but not enough material for either one to stand on its own. Still, it was hard to understand why the second story, that of Isabel Nelson, had to be there, particularly given that the portion of the story set on-board the Lusitania didn't lack for action - and probably could have been drawn out further.

Final verdict: Skip Seven Days and head directly for Erik Larson's Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania.