This is the author note, which is published at the end of the book. It’s my chance to pull back the curtain a little and tell you what parts of the story are true, and where I’ve taken dramatic liberties. As a world traveller, I love bringing real places, cultures and history into my stories, and I feel it would be a mistake not to share the truth with you.

Be aware, there are spoilers here! I’d suggest you don’t read this until you’ve finished the book.

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Thanks so much for reading The Titanic Deception. It’s been my pleasure to entertain you for the last few hours. Producing a book like this is the work of many months — sharing it with you makes it all that labor worthwhile

Travel is an incredibly important part of my writing process. In fact, I don’t think I would be a writer if I wasn’t first a traveler. Sometimes that comes through in the settings of my stories. I work hard to make you feel like you’re right there in the mess with my characters. Other times that’s because when I travel, I’m away from my desk and life’s never-ending to do list. This distance allows my mind to roam, and ideas to form. 

The Titanic Deception came to me in this way. In January 2023, Mrs. R and I took a trip to Egypt to research The Giza Protocol. 

As an aside, it was such a fantastic trip. I’ve written about it in detail here: https://www.lukerichardsonauthor.com/egypt

While we were in Egypt, we took a guided tour to the Valley of the Kings, just outside Luxor. The tour guide kept our interest for several hours, explaining how the tombs were built and the lives of the people inside. Then, he started talking about the mummy trade. 

The mummy trade, called ‘mummia,’ is a dark, and pretty weird part of history. It’s one of those stories that are great to cite when a clueless friend rants about the failings of the modern world with claims like, ‘things were better back then.’ 

During the Renaissance and later, Europeans developed a fascination with ancient Egyptian mummies, not for their archaeological significance, but for their supposed medicinal properties. Ground-up mummy powder, known as ‘mummia’, was believed to help all sorts of ailments, from headaches to stomach disorders. This macabre trade led to a high demand for mummified remains, which, in turn, spurred grave robbing and the counterfeit mummy industry. As medicine improved — and maybe as people realized how weird consuming corpses was — the practice and demand for mummia dwindled. 

“There’s even a legend that says a number of mummies from the British Museum were transported on The Titanic,” our tour guide explained, claiming that by the start of the twentieth century people had started believing that mummies were able to bestow misfortune on people nearby. As such, the British Museum had sold some mummies to someone in New York and arranged passage across the ocean. 

My mind was racing by this point. I saw in my mind’s eye the scene with Marcus Nettleby rushing through the stricken Titanic on the way to see his beloved artifact one more time.

The idea for The Titanic Deception had arrived. 

Later, I learned that it wasn’t in fact a mummy that was supposedly transported on The Titanic, but a mummy board. The artifact is actually called the Unlucky Mummy and remains in the British Museum to this day, so wasn’t on The Titanic at all! That said, The Titanic was a big ship, who’s to know exactly what was in her many holds and cabins…

Okay, let’s address the elephant in the room here. Did The Titanic hit an iceberg?

The answer I’ve come to is… probably, yes. However, there a many different facts that allow some room for doubt. 

The Titanic was travelling through unusually still waters in the middle of the night. That means the men on watch wouldn’t have been able to see very well. Bear in mind, electric lights weren’t as good then as they are now, obviously, and the men on watch were just watching with the naked eye — they didn’t have any binoculars or anything else to help them spot these giant chunks of ice. Also, as the great idiom tells us, most of the iceberg is below the water. What I’m getting at here is that it’s very possible that no one actually saw the iceberg clearly. If no one saw the iceberg, then this leaves a whole world of possibilities, right?

The sinking of The Titanic also isn’t without its conspiracies. 

Was it really The Titanic at all? One of the most well-known conspiracy theories suggests The Titanic was switched with its sister ship, The Olympic, as part of an insurance scam. These ships were built side by side in the same dockyard and were almost identical — a couple of tins of paint to change the names and no one would know the difference. Proponents of this theory claim The Olympic, which had been damaged in a collision, was intentionally sunk to collect insurance money.

The US Federal Reserve theory. Central to this theory are the untimely deaths of three of the ship’s prominent passengers: John Jacob Astor IV, Benjamin Guggenheim, and Isidor Straus. These wealthy men, theorists argue, opposed the creation of the US Federal Reserve. Their deaths, so the theory goes, cleared the path for the Federal Reserve Act to be passed. Adding some weight to this, J.P. Morgan, who was a key player in the establishment of the Federal Reserve was one of the owners of White Star Line, and The Titanic. 

My books come to me as I’m writing. I don’t know the end when I start. I don’t know where the story is going to end up, or what twists and turns we might make on the way. I have tried planning before I begin, but invariably end up changing things when another, better, idea arrives. It wasn’t until I was chatting with a friend who happens to have Rh-Negative blood, that idea for the Lady of Leone and the Van Wick’s Xero+ blood appeared.

About 15% of people have Rh-Negative blood, and the other 85% are Rh-Positive. Interestingly 35% of the people in the Basque Region of Spain are Rh-Negative, which is the highest concentration in the world. This is quite a big thing, though, and can cause health complications. If an Rh-Negative mother is carrying an Rh-Positive fetus, her body can think the baby’s Rh-Positive red blood cells are foreign and develop antibodies to fight them. There is also evidence which claims Rh-Negative people have lower than normal blood pressure, a slower pulse, and in some cases, people are known to have an extra vertebra in their spine. Further to this, it seems that no one really understands where this difference came from. Some suggest it could be a mutation, others propose this indicates the human race has more than one origin. 

Here’s the thing that really piqued my interest. In the general world population, Rh-Negative is low, yet a surprising number of powerful and important people have Rh-Negative blood. This number include countless US politicians and several presidents, the British Royals, numerous musicians, sports people, and loads of other people of note. That really got me thinking — for a trait that consists of small percentage, they really do have a lot of very wealthy and powerful people! This stuff is like rocket fuel to an archaeological thriller writer like me.

Towards the end of the story, Eden and Winslow go to see The Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum. This is a real exhibit and is on display in their specially designed gallery which was finally completed in the 1930s after several decades delay. Whether there are secret rooms beneath the building, I don’t know, but I would love to think so. The way these sculptures came to be in the British Museum, when they are really part of the Parthenon in Athens, is a shady one. Lord Elgin, who was the envoy to the Ottoman Empire at the time when the Ottomans ruled Greece, got a license to do some research on the Parthenon. He ended up removing loads of the statues and causing a lot of damage. Towards the end of his life, Elgin got into financial trouble and had to sell the sculptures to pay his debts. The British Government bought them and then placed them in the museum. Greece have asked the British to return their sculptures so that they can be displayed in Athens, but the British have refused.

Maybe one day I’ll write a story about a crack team of archaeological thieves who go around stealing all the artifacts that have been looted during the colonial period and returning them to their places of origin. 

I was also very pleased to feature The London Underground in this book. Although there are several similar metro systems around the world, I’ve always found the London Underground (we don’t call it the metro!) fascinating. 

The disused British Museum Underground Station is totally true, and still exists deep beneath the streets. Located on the Central Line between Tottenham Court Road and Holborn stations, it operated from 1900 to 1933. Over the years, various redevelopment proposals were put forward for the disused station, including transforming it into an air raid shelter during World War II, but none came to fruition. Today, it remains one of London’s ‘ghost stations.’

Ghost station is a suitable phrase for it because supposedly the abandoned station tunnels are haunted! The tale goes, the ghost of Amen-Ra, an Ancient Egyptian princess or high priestess, wanders the platforms wearing a loincloth, headdress, and screaming at the top of her voices. The legend gained traction in the 1930s when stories circulated of the ghost’s apparition being seen by construction workers and night watchmen. More recently, late night travellers on other nearby stations report to have seen and heard her wandering the tunnels. In an interesting twist, it was the mummy board from Amen-Ra’s sarcophagus that was supposed to be on board The Titanic. Sometimes these legends are crazier than my stories!

As always with my books, I intend for you to come for the action, and leave having made some good fictional friends along the way. I hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know Eden and her crew better within these pages. 

It has occurred to me recently that I always seem to write characters who are “outsiders.” What that says about me, I don’t really want think, but in all my books the main character is a bit of a lone wolf trying to fit in with the world around them. 

In Eden’s stories, while having a great adventure, she finds the engagement with other people a challenge. You may have noticed that she often hides behind humor when things get personal. 

I love addressing topics like this, because although most of us won’t face genetically engineered bad guys, I expect we all know what it feels like to be the odd one out at some point.

This book also sees the men in her life, her father and Baxter, start to open up a little more. How either of these relationships will develop, I’m not at liberty to say. You’ll have to join me on the next one to find out!

Once again, thank you for your company and can’t wait for our next adventure together.

Luke

October 2023