I’ll be honest, at first glance, the synopsis of The Lost Passenger sounds a bit like a sequel to Titanic. But happily, this proves not to be the case. The book begins two years before the doomed voyage and is told in the fresh first-person voice of a likable heroine, Elinor Hayward.
After a whirlwind courtship, 19-year-old Elinor marries Frederick Coombes, an English aristocrat, only to discover that what she thought was a union of love was instead a ruse to get her father’s new money to resurrect the Coombes’ crumbling old English estate. In Frederick’s words, his family’s guiding principle is, “When the place has been in the family for five centuries, it gives one a certain responsibility to the generations who’ve gone before and the ones to come.”
Having realized Frederick’s duplicity, Elinor resigns herself to a loveless life in cold Winterton Hall. She simply does not fit in there, as a woman who speaks her mind and has been taught by her father to have some business sense. She is looked down upon for her accent and her manners (her mother-in-law: “We spoon soup away from us, Elinor”). When she provides the family with a male heir, Teddy, she learns that motherhood, too, will not be as she imagined. A nanny will raise her son without her input.
Then Elinor’s father gives her three tickets for the Titanic’s maiden voyage, and Elinor jumps at the opportunity to escape from Winterton for 16 days. The trip becomes a more permanent escape for her when Frederick goes down with the ship, and Elinor makes an impulsive, brave choice that leads her to a new family in New York.
Readers will enjoy The Lost Passenger’s emphasis on the power of self-reliance and determination, demonstrated through the juxtaposition of Elinor’s unhappy life in England with her happiness in the life she chooses, despite its less favorable conditions. Some may wish to see more of her later life and Teddy’s, but Elinor’s believable voice and sympathetic narrative will have great appeal.
