Try to imagine "Downton Abbey" floating on the ocean, and you have some idea of the opulence of the RMS Lusitania, the ship sunk by a torpedo during World War I.
Author Erik Larson tells the story of the ship and its sinking anew in the book Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania.
He helps peel the layers of fact and fiction apart, helping us understand the state of war and the reason for the ship sailing into the middle of a war zone. The author joins us with details of the ship, the time, and the work he committed to the book.