A Dangerous Crossing by Rachel Rhys

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am reviewing A Dangerous Crossing by Rachel Rhys.

This is an Amazon Vine Programme Review.

A Dangerous Crossing is a fictional story inspired by a real diary of a young girl’s description of life in the 1930s as she travels on a large passenger ship from the UK to Australia to learn domestic skills for girls. Here are my thoughts:

^^ A Dangerous Crossing reads a little like an Agatha Christie novel in which a closed room whodunnit becomes a ‘closed ship’ mystery; when things get tough, there is no escape.

^^ I loved the main character, Lily, for both her intelligence and naivety. It’s interesting to see how her character strengthens as she builds relationships with different people from all walks of life; people she would never have met had it not been for this trip of a lifetime for someone of her age and background.

^^ Among the many characters that are typical of this time period, we are propelled into a story where people are suspicious of each other, different races are misunderstood and unusual alliances are made. There is distrust and unease everywhere, just bubbling away under the surface.

^^ I thought the author wrote this historical fiction book well, keeping true to style of the era and characterisation, whilst providing enough suspense for the modern day reader. One could say, this story’s pace starts off slow, like the calm before the storm, but picks up, and soon it’s full speed ahead.

^^ I’m wondering if there’ll be a book two, where we find out more about the life of a girl becoming an Australian domestic servant. These were not particularly fun times for all and they worked the girls very hard for very little.

Overall: The beauty of this book is that it reveals as much about life and history of young migrants travelling to Australia, as it does about the claustrophobic life on a passenger ship where everyone, whatever their class, is thrown together at a time where Hitler has invaded Poland and Britain and France have already declared war on Germany. Small ripples develop into huge waves of suspicion during these turbulent times.

Who should trust who?

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