February 1912
This has been a terrible day.
I’ve always known my family was a bit rackety. My grandmother married a Southerner, a Mr John Rolfe Church, during the Civil War, and left him the very next day. We had no notion why.
And now the most terrible thing has happened.
My husband, Alexander, has found out there are two John Rolfe Churches. One, Dr John, is a planter in Virginia. But the other, who’s dead, called himself John Rolfe Church too but was actually a black man.
If my grandmother married him, that would make Mother, my brothers and sisters, my little boy, and me black too.
I know what prejudice is: oh yes, I do. I’m really no more than very short-sighted, but nobody cares about that. No, they decide I can’t see at all, I’m totally blind, and if I can’t see, I obviously can’t hear. Or think. Or anything. People ask Alexander questions about me when I’m right there to answer.
In America, being called black would be like being called blind. People would think can’t. Think stupid. People have tried to make me that person for most of my life.
And I will not have it. I will not have prejudice directed against my family, against my dear Toby. It shouldn’t be directed against anyone. It’s not fair my piano partner Mr. Williams isn’t hired to play classical. It’s wrong that his granddaughter Garnet, who is a fashion genius, can’t try on clothes in a store. But giving Jim Crow more victims won’t do any good, will it?
All I know to do is make sure Toby isn’t discriminated against. Toby will not have to leave America. Not my little boy.
Nor will I. I will not be robbed of my country.
My grandmother must have married the right man.
I have a plan to fix things. I’m going to America to give a concert for the Suffragettes at Carnegie Hall. Dr John Church is going back to America with his wife and his mother aboard the same liner. I’ll ask them to look after me on the voyage. I’ll act the poor blind lady (goodness, how I hate that!). I’ll listen to them and ask them questions about their history.
I’ll telegraph my grandmother to meet us on the pier in New York. And she’ll recognize the man she married, the right one.
Everything will be fine when Titanic reaches New York.
But, do you know, I am afraid she’ll simply lie for me and never tell me what really happened? People do lie for other people. I’ve lied for Garnet.
I would so much want to know the truth, even though I can’t speak it.
I suppose that’s the very thing I cannot want at all.
Giveaway: Perdita and her friends and family are thinking about survival. In these times, so are the rest of us. What’s the best mystery you’ve read about survival? Why do you like it? This is your chance to win a print or digital copy of Crimes and Survivors. (U.S. entries only for print copy, please.) The giveaway ends April 18, 2020. Good luck, everyone!
Crimes and Survivors is the fourth book starring Perdita Halley, American aspiring concert pianist turned French baroness—and now, perhaps, exile from America, released April 15, 2020.
All Perdita Halley wants to do is to play the piano. But she’s just found out her grandmother may have married a black man. This is 1912, the height of Jim Crow. If it’s true, her family’s life and her own will be ruined in America.
But is it?
One man can tell her what the truth is. She follows him onto the newest, safest ship in the world, hoping to find the truth—the right truth, the one that will save her family.
But after the iceberg, she finds the truth is more complicated than black and white. More daring, more loving—and far more dangerous. And what she’ll have to find is not a convenient truth, but a new America.
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Meet the author
Sarah Smith has been interested in the Titanic since she read Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember. Her internationally bestselling mysteries are published in 14 languages, have won the Agatha and the Massachusetts Book Award, and have been named New York Times Notable Books twice, as well as collecting many other recommendations and awards. It still surprises and delights her when somebody she doesn’t know has read them. Say hello to her at sarahsmith.com or on Facebook or on Twitter.
All comments are welcomed.
I honestly cannot name just one mystery that I love 💕 that I have read about survival because I am a huge Titanic fan and have read as many books 📚 about Titanic as I can get my hands on….and several were mysteries that were all surrounding the sinking of the Titanic! You are a new author for me Sarah Smith, and as soon as I saw the cover of this new book 📖 of yours, and then read the synopsis I was totally hooked and just knew I had to read your book! I have a huge collection of Titanic memorabilia and even one whole room in my house totally full of Titanic things! I find what I love the most about the mystery of the Titanic is that it is a true sad event that actually happened and that many people such as myself are still enthralled with it 108 years later….today actually being exactly 108 years since she sank! With your new book 📖 being set in 1912 with the Titanic, I am extremely excited to read your book! I would absolutely be thrilled to win a print copy of this awesome and exciting new book of yours! Thank you so very much dear Sarah and dear Dru Ann for the opportunity to maybe win! Stay safe and healthy! 😊💜🌈
Sounds like an exciting backdrop for a mystery, and people still can’t get enough about the Titanic. I think a lot of mysteries end up with a struggle for survival when the sleuth tangles with the murderer. The police procedural I just finished (Hat Dance) by Carmen Amato showed the protagonist fighting for her life as she investigates a series of arson explosions. Widespread corruption in her own ranks thwarts her efforts to expose the perpetrators and survive.
Beverly, do you know about the groups Titanic Friends and Titanic Collectors and Artists on Facebook? They’re pretty wonderful, and Titanic Collectors in particular has other people with wonderful things. Ask Joanna Dolan for an invitation, and tell her I sent you.
I’m doing a Titanic launch party this Sunday night, 5-9 PM Eastern. Details are at https://tinyurl.com/TheLifeboatsParty
Sign up for a free goody bag of downloadable Titanic stuff.
There are costume contests! And there’ll be a panel of Titanic experts.
The Titanic has always fascinated me. Would really love to read the book. I can’t think of last book about survival that I’ve read.
Oh wow! Thank you so much sweet Sarah for all your awesome information here for me about the Titanic! I will definitely check into all of it! Really appreciate it! And I am so super duper excited to read your book! 📚📖. Take care and stay safe and healthy! Hugs 🤗 💜🌈🙏
I’ve been reading Susan Elia MacNeal’s Maggie Hope mysteries. Maggie is trying to survive World War II in London and other parts of Great Britain, and at the same time, help the war effort. She is British, but was raised in America by her British aunt, and now has to adjust to a new, yet not unfamiliar, culture in the midst of the beginning of World War II. Almost from the beginning, she is involved in intrigue, mystery, and threats to national security and her character grows in leaps and bounds from the first book.
I must try those–thanks, Celia!
I honestly can’t think of mystery about survival. I did read Odessa, Odessa by Barbara Artson on the survival of a Jewish family as they migrated for a better life in America. The story expands over several generations and the search to find connections of family over continents is a mystery in itself, though.
Moving On by Jonathan Stone was captivating, thrilling and enthralling. It took great courage and strength of character to survive what Stanley Peke had to face. His tenacity and intelligence made him succeed over great adversity. At 72, he was inventive and determined and no wonder since he faced much worse in his life before this. I had to admire him and continue to be amazed with his bravery. Surviving was his motto and no one would take this away from him.
Reading Dragonfly by Leila Meacham was compelling since it concerned World War 2 and the individuals who volunteer for missions and are in peril everyday. Their steadfast and ongoing belief in what they are doing gives me great understanding in what they had to deal with. Thinking about this era, the deprivations, sacrifices and unbelievable heartache is what made their future worthwhile. Meaningful, profound and extraordinary.
The most recent book I’ve read with survival at its core is All The Ways We Said Goodbye by Willig, Williams, and White. It focuses on families through two world wars.
This one looks great, Pat! Thanks for the suggestion.
I love reading cozy mysteries. In several of them the heroine finds herself fighting for her life!
In the Spies of Shilling Lane by Jennifer Ryan, Mrs. Braithwaite must find her missing daughter during the bombings of London during WW2. Mrs. Braithwaite is clever & never gives up.
I am so anxious to get this book as I know both my husband and I will enjoy it. A book that I feel you may connect with is Something Beautiful Happened by Yvette Manessis Corporon. .
Best of everything to you Sarah. I sent my request to be on your Facebook page earlier.
Sincerely Cynthia
**** WINNER ****
Crimes and Survivors is Beverly Guy
Congratulations!
Thank you so much 😊! I am so super duper excited and thrilled to have won! Can’t wait to read this new book 📚! Thank you dear Dru Ann and dear Sarah! 😊😊😊💜💜💜🌈🌈🌈