Guest Author: Linda Cargill

Next year, 2014, will be the one hundredth anniversary of the start of World War 1, which contemporaries called the Great War. Two years from now on May 7, 2015 will be the centennial of the sinking of the Lusitania. Key to Lawrence, an historical thriller by Linda and Gary Cargill, commemorates this anniversary. The authors start out the novel with the last voyage of the Cunard ocean liner from May 1, 1915 to May 7, 1915 when the vessel sank in the Irish Sea six miles from land.

Many mysteries remain about the sinking of the famous ship. The greatest is the mysterious second explosion which took place within minutes after the German torpedo hit the liner at exactly 2:10PM British time. It seemed to have no cause and hastened the demise of the Lusitania which sank and disappeared beneath the waves in only eighteen minutes. By 2:30PM it was history.

Robert D. Ballard in his book, Exploring the Lusitania: Probing the Mysteries of the Sinking That Changed History, postulates that vapor pockets from the coal-fired engine caused the big explosion. But it's only a theory, and no one really knows. If Captain Turner knew he was kept quiet by Cunard and the British government for the rest of his life. They even appeared at the inquest and pulled him out of it the day after the sinking.

The British government remains the only entity who might actually know the true fate of the ship. They are the only ones who would know what was actually being carried in the hold other than a fortune in famous paintings for Sir Hugh Lane. Were there guns? Ammunition? Something else that might attract German attention?

Key to Lawrence is going to be published by Cheops Books in paperback on October 1, 2013. It is 252 pp.

Read first chapter HERE

About the author:

Linda Cargill likes to pack up her minivan and tour the country every summer. She explores locales with ghostly or supernatural connections. She listens to local legends and lore. She investigates mysteries. Then she shares her findings with her readers in each new young adult suspense novel. Once in awhile she even pens an historical! All her books are pictured on her website www.lindacargill.org. She lives in Tucson, Arizona with her husband, Gary, an attorney, her son, Kenny, a Russian translator, her Abyssinian cat, Putlitz, and her Labrador Retriever, Sabaka.

Key To Lawrence
by the Cargills

Series: Edward Ware Thrillers
Paperback: 252 pages
Publisher: Cheops Books; first edition edition (October 1, 2013)

Synopsis:

Who is that sinister-looking stranger who keeps eying Miss Dora Benley on the Lusitania pier on May 1, 1915? At dinner the first night in the grand dining room he sends her a threatening note. He orders her to hand over her father's birthday package. She carried it aboard, a gift from Sir Adolphus Ware, the car magnate her Robber Baron father is sailing to England to meet over a tire deal. If she doesn't obey, he threatens to blow up the ship. There's nothing inside the package except an empty humidor! Dora had better figure out what's going on, or the saboteur will send her ot the bottom of the Irish Sea.

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