The Midnight Watch

April 11, 2016
Debut author Dyer elucidates formerly restricted evidence in his recreation of the confounding evening that the SS Californian watched on while the nearby Titanic sent up eight distress rockets before slowly sinking into the sea. The story itself is bizarre, rife with miscommunications. When Capt. Stanley Lord brings the Californian to a halt, his radio operator warns nearby ships that "We are stopped and surrounded by ice," but the steaming Titanic's operator responds, "shut up shut up shut up keep out" only moments before that passenger vessel's lights go out all at once. Meek second officer Herbert Stone sees the rockets go up, bursting "silently into a delicate shower of stars" one after another, during his graveyard watch, but is fatefully told only to monitor. When Captain Lord and Officer Stone later offer their official accounts, Boston reporter Steadman senses an incomplete truth, and through his pleasantly filigreed voice, their failure to act is exposed during the second half of the novel. Dyer's elegant, imaginative renderings captivate, and his expansive researchâincluding exclusive access to legal documentsâmakes this colossal disaster newly enthralling.

February 1, 2016
As the Titanic slipped into its icy grave, the SS Californian slept just miles away. So why didn't the British ship come to her aid? From the muddy streets and dark taverns of Boston to the frigid, murky waters of the North Atlantic, Dyer's debut novel turns the kaleidoscope, retelling the tale of the unsinkable ship through a new lens. Playing lead detective is veteran journalist John Steadman, who smells trouble when the Californian arrives in Boston Harbor without any rescued bodies and without any desire to speak to the press. The mystery encompasses five sailors: Cyril Evans, the wireless man, tried to warn the Titanic of treacherous ice fields, but he was shut down by the other ship's own wireless operator. Charlie Groves, the third officer, watched a ship in the distance suddenly go dark. James Gibson, a young apprentice, saw something that looked like Morse code flashing in the night sky. Herbert Stone, the second officer, had the midnight watch, and he saw rockets fired from a ship in the distance that night. Yet Capt. Lord gave no order to respond. The next morning, Evans discovers that the magnetic detector for the wireless equipment has wound down, delaying the arrival of news that the Titanic has sunk. Alternating chapters between Steadman's detective work and the officers' conflicting stories darkens the suspicions. Much of the tension centers on the fraying relationship between Stone and Lord. Obsessed with Melville's Moby-Dick, Stone longs to play a faithful Starbuck to a noble Capt. Lord's Ahab. Yet as Lord repeatedly dismisses Stone's interpretation of events, Stone begins to wonder if the moral compass is skewed, indeed. As Steadman peels back the layers, will he find dishonor, conspiracy, and subterfuge or perhaps simply muddled memories? Dyer rekindles the suspense and outrage of the Titanic inquiry.

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February 15, 2016

This retelling of the 1912 sinking of the Titanic differs from other accounts in that it focuses on the SS Californian, the nearby ship that ignored the ocean liner's desperate signal flares. The story is told from two viewpoints: one of an alcoholic reporter who suspects that the Californian could have saved lives that night, and the other from the second officer on that ship, whose captain chose not to take action. Steadman, the reporter, is sinking in his own way: a failed marriage, a writing style that doesn't work for his new and aggressive editor, and a habit of hitting the bottle. The second officer, Stone, was terrified of his father as a child, and is equally scared of Captain Lord. Who made the fateful decision not to sail toward the Titanic? Steadman has to figure out if it is the haunted Stone or the self-certain Lord. VERDICT Offering an alternative perspective on a popular subject of historical fiction, this decent first novel will also interest readers who enjoy characters who are flawed, complex, and conflicted.--W. Keith McCoy, Somerset Cty. Lib. Syst., Bridgewater, NJ

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