A mysterious historical novel where secrets are unveiled on a family cruise to Egypt
It’s 1936, and Cynthia’s family is boarding a cruise ship to Egypt. Her father, Alfred, recently received a generous severance package and a luxurious cruise paid for by his employer after he was abruptly fired without cause.
But Cynthia is oblivious to the difficulties her family’s facing. She simply can’t understand why her mother, Minnie May, is constantly complaining about such a wonderful opportunity.
However, before their departure, her grandmother gifts Cynthia a necklace with a beetle charm, which was a gift to her grandmother from someone unknown. This charm sparks a question that becomes an underlying theme of the narrative: “I wonder who promised to show Nana the world?”
As the voyage continues and Cynthia learns more about her family’s past, she grapples with her parents’ marital conflicts, a budding romantic interest with a ship worker, and her mother’s insistence on marrying her into higher society. Along the way, she forms a friendship with Bella, Lord Ingleby’s wife, who encourages Cynthia to attend teaching school as she says, “My advice is to follow your dreams. I never got that chance.” Over time, this advice takes hold, and Cynthia learns that “courage doesn’t always have to be noisy; it can start like a whisper.”
In addition to Cynthia’s viewpoint, the story is built on two other perspectives: Alfred’s and Sara Ann’s, Alfred’s mother. Sara Ann’s story is set in the late 1800s and creates the foundation for the family’s difficulties. As a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her employer, she finds herself in a predicament once she becomes pregnant: her baby is either her employer’s—who is also her lover’s brother-in-law—or her lover’s, Freddie, a wealthy, athletic man who falls for Sara Ann even though she’s in a lower class. While readers uncover more about Sara Ann, they gain a better understanding of how Alfred’s current difficulties stem directly from decisions Sara Ann made as a poor young mother.
This historical mystery is compelling from the very first line. It lets readers in on a secret Sara Ann had “been putting off revealing for weeks,” which creates a temptation to uncover the mystery of Alfred’s father’s identity from the get-go. It’s a sort of misdirect—Sara Ann talking to a friend about a new lover seems to carry lower stakes than how the mystery eventually becomes to her granddaughter Cynthia, years down the line.
Even more, the juxtaposition of all three perspectives creates a twisting narrative, jumping from one time period to the next and offering new images and new understanding along with a true feeling of excitement in uncovering the truth from multiple angles. The answers to the underlying secret are tantalizingly exposed over time.
In the end, the characters will still have to deal with challenges due to class and societal expectations, but a happy, perhaps too-tidy ending makes the novel a light, pleasurable read despite the heavier topics of poverty, rape, and abuse.
Records of a Voyage is a successful historical mystery that explores how a buried past always has a way of being uncovered.
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