The Great Circle — Peter Prince

"On St. Valentine's Day, 1865, the paddle steamer Laurentia, Captain Donald McDonough commanding, left the Inman Line wharf in East Boston bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Liverpool. Her sailing day was a Tuesday as usual. . . . ""

A s the Laurentia makes her stately passage across the gray Atlantic, the passengers are left to their own devices to fill the thirteen days until they reach England's shores. They will form alliances, make enemies, negotiate deals, and swindle, seduce, and betray one another--all while upholding the strictest standards of nineteenth-century decorum.

The diverse passenger list includes:
Arthur and Olivia Crichton--a middle-aged businessman and his beautiful, much younger wife, a couple trying to believe that they are happy
The Reverend Stibbards--a clergyman with an unusually secular appreciation of the female passengers
Mrs. Stewart--a widow of obvious charms but rather uncertain means
Charles Stuart--a black entertainer, held prisoner in his cabin, hoping to find tolerance in the great capitals of Europe
Major Cutler--a bigoted card player with a loaded pistol at his side
John Bonney--a mysterious young man, standing at the rail in all weather, his eyes never leaving the receding American shore


But people are rarely what they seem . . .

For fans of Upstairs Downstairs and A Room with a View, The Great Circle--literate, sophisticated, colorfully cast--is an unforgettable window into a world gone by, yet one whose themes of love and happiness and the ways to live a life of integrity are timeless.