The Evangeline
D.W. Buffa
Blue Zephyr, Jul 28 2010, $12.99
ISBN: 9781452826097
Learning from the mistakes of nautical disasters like the Titanic, the Evangeline was constructed to never sink; yet the designer insured the vessel contained every reliable electronic high tech gizmo on the market and also safety escapes like enough lifeboats just in case.
However, history repeats itself when the unsinkable Evangeline sinks off the African Atlantic coast during a torrential storm and in spite of mundane safety precautions only one lifeboat makes it off the ship. The tiny lifeboat contains fourteen survivors including Captain Vincent Marlowe. Weeks later as the stored food and water supplies that were on board were depleted, only one source remained. Forty days at sea, the survivors of the Evangeline are rescued; six people including the captain who is charged with multiple homicides. His defense of the murders is simple: to save some others died.
Although this exhilarating thriller ostensive occurs in a courtroom with testimony used to tell what happened at sea, readers will be reminded of the Hitchcock classic The Lifeboat with its similar crammed setting. The question of saving a few by killing a few leads to a strong moral debate over how to choose who shall die and why even though the law is allegedly blind to ethical debates. Although some of the key support characters are never fully developed, the defense lawyer, the prosecution and the captain are so that fans will appreciate The Evangeline.
Harriet Klausner
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