Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Lost Empress
    The Lost Empress
    The Lost Empress
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Lost Empress

    Written by Steve Robinson

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    From acclaimed author Steve Robinson comes a bold new Jefferson Tayte mystery.

    On a foggy night in 1914, the ocean liner Empress of Ireland sank en route between Canada and England. The disaster saw a loss of life comparable to the Titanic and the Lusitania, and yet her tragedy has been forgotten.

    When genealogist Jefferson Tayte is shown a locket belonging to one of the Empress’s victims, a British admiral’s daughter named Alice Stilwell, he must travel to England to understand the course of events that led to her death.

    Tayte is expert in tracking killers across centuries. In The Lost Empress, his unique talents draw him to one of the greatest tragedies in maritime history as he unravels the truth behind Alice’s death amidst a backdrop of pre-WWI espionage.

    This is the fourth book in the Jefferson Tayte Genealogical Mystery series but can be enjoyed as a stand-alone story.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateOct 21, 2014
    ISBN9781491549209
    The Lost Empress
    Author

    Steve Robinson

    Steve Robinson drew upon his own family history for inspiration when he imagined the life and quest of his genealogist hero, Jefferson Tayte. The talented London-based crime writer, who was first published at age sixteen, always wondered about his own maternal grandfather. “He was an American GI billeted in England during the Second World War,” Robinson says. “A few years after the war ended he went back to America, leaving a young family behind, and, to my knowledge, no further contact was made. I traced him to Los Angeles through his 1943 enlistment record and discovered that he was born in Arkansas…” Robinson cites crime-writing and genealogy amongst his hobbies—a passion that is readily apparent in his work. He can be contacted via his website, www.steve-robinson.me, his blog at steverobinsonauthor.blogspot.com, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SteveRobinsonAuthor.

    More audiobooks from Steve Robinson

    Related to The Lost Empress

    Titles in the series (7)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Scotland

      Oct 19, 2021

      Scotland
      2 min read

    • Article

      Gem

      Apr 27, 2020

      Gem
      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Jan 26, 2023

      CONTACT US BY POST: PO BOX 1200, WHITSTABLE CT1 9RH, OR E-MAIL SIEVEKING@FORTEANTIMES.COM PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS “In search of British Bigfeet” [FT425:30-36] mentions the wode-wose (the wild man of the woods). The article says tha

      9 min read

    • Article

      What Slim Saw

      Jun 10, 2021

      What Slim Saw
      11 min read

    • Article

      Quotients

      May 7, 2020

      Quotients
      8 min read

    • Article

      “Don’t Move Me”

      Sep 23, 2021

      “Don’t Move Me”
      6 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Sep 21, 2022

      Readers’ Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      Innocence Lost

      Feb 5, 2019

      Innocence Lost
      6 min read

    • Article

      Roger's PROFANISAURUS

      Nov 19, 2020

      Roger's PROFANISAURUS
      8 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Oct 1, 2020

      Anniversaries
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Jun 30, 2021

      * Have Oldie-readers who wear glasses ever thought where specs come from? The answer lies in a new book, Through the Looking Glasses: The Spectacular Life of Spectacles, by Travis Elborough. Elborough, himself bespectacled, traces the history of spec

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Jul 27, 2022

      The Old Un’s Notes
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Jun 29, 2022

      The Old Un’s Notes
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Supreme Act Of Trust

      Aug 10, 2022

      The Supreme Act Of Trust
      5 min read

    • Article

      Dear Paul

      Sep 11, 2020

      Dear Paul
      6 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Aug 7, 2019

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Oct 8, 2020

      Thank you for making my life more joyful month after month. I can’t tell you how important to me the Fortean Times is. Kevin Hope By email Regarding Matt Salusbury’s Forum article on sunken bells [FT396:54-55], there is more to the bells of Aberdyfi

      14 min read

    • Article

      Twentieth Century Tales

      Apr 21, 2022

      Twentieth Century Tales
      9 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Sep 30, 2021

      Anniversaries
      5 min read

    • Article

      Think Ink

      Nov 2, 2022

      Think Ink
      5 min read

    • Article

      As Everybody Knows…

      Nov 4, 2021

      From Mozart’s Murder to Cleopatra’s Asp Graeme Donald Michael O’Mara 2021 Pb, 256pp, £7.99, ISBN 9781789293623 Ten Great Lies and How They Shaped the World Otto English Wellbeck 2021 Hb, 320pp, £16.99, ISBN 9781787396395 You wait all day for a scepti

      4 min read

    • Article

      Haunted King’s Lynn

      Jan 27, 2022

      Haunted King’s Lynn
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Pre-loved Treasure House

      Oct 14, 2019

      A Pre-loved Treasure House
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un's Notes

      Nov 15, 2023

      At the October Oldie Literary Lunch, we were lucky enough to host Sir Don McCullin, the world's greatest war photographer. Don was talking about his new book, Journeys Across Roman Asia Minor, published with a commentary by Barnaby Rogerson. He says

      4 min read

    • Article

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER

      Oct 28, 2021

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Lost Empress

    3.5/5

    60 ratings7 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Was an okay read. Story seemed far-fetched but still entertaining.
    • 3/5
      A pleasant enough easy read, though I would have preferred a better balance between JT’s research and Alice’s story - there wasn’t much of the former. And the ending felt a little feeble. Not knowing that this was a series, I originally read book 5, and then started back at book 1, so I already know what happens next, and it kind of feels like this book was squeezed in because the series needed to be made longer. Book 5 follows 3 far more logically than this one.
    • 4/5
      A modern murder in England appears to be directly linked to espionage in the lead up to WW I.
    • 2/5
      Not as good as his first two, but still readable.
    • 2/5
      Eh, I'm done with these. The formula never varies, the author apparently doesn't know any Americans and there are gaffes and laughable moments as a result. Plus I just can't take JT anymore and his lackluster, backward personality.
    • 5/5
      When you sit down to read this make sure that you have all weekend or a couple of days off. You will want to read it straight through!! It is that good. I found it to be very engrossing. This is a cleverly woven book of the past and present. The twists and turns of who Alice is and what happened to her is fascinating. Part mystery, part historical fiction and also part adventure it moves quickly along. I loved this book. The subject is interesting the characters are good and the delivery of the novel is well thought out. I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars.
    • 4/5
      As in his previous book To the Grave, author Steve Robinson tells his story with two narratives; one in 1914 and Tayte's in the present day. It is a technique he does well. I found both narratives to be equally interesting, and both kept me guessing at how all the pieces fit together. In addition, Robinson shines the spotlight on an almost forgotten tragedy: the sinking of the Empress of Ireland. With a death toll almost as high as the Titanic, the Empress of Ireland has long been overshadowed by the Titanic, the sinking of the Lusitania, and by the beginning of World War I. The Lost Empress does deal tangentially with the Great War and its centenary this year by focusing on some of the events that led up to it. This strong historical foundation adds a great deal to the past narrative in the book.As someone who's read all four of Robinson's Jefferson Tayte mysteries, it's easy to see what a canny writer he is. One of the things I enjoy the most is his character's use of basic genealogist's tools to solve mysteries. Having lived with two of this breed, I know just how much information can be found in old records, be they census records, wills, photographs, newspaper accounts, or letters and diaries. To the uninitiated it may seem incredulous that Tayte can solve crime using these methods, but it's not. (Did you know that there's such a thing as forensic genealogy?)Another thing that Robinson has done throughout this series is vary the action. From someone who blundered from one concussion to the next in the first book, Tayte has become calmer and more assured-- even to the point of dodging bullets in The Last Queen of England. Robinson knows that there aren't many genealogists out there who dodge bullets for a living, so there's no repeat of that in this book. Instead the focus is on that very puzzling ancestor and her story, and it's a very rich and satisfying mystery to solve.This book can easily be read as a standalone, but as the story ends with Tayte being on the verge of making a life-changing decision, chances are excellent that this is one series you're going to want to continue following.