For reading groups
Souls of Scapa Flow works well for reading groups: it is a page-turning ghost story, but it also raises questions about guilt, respect for the dead, faith and the pull of the past. These questions are designed to start a conversation. Some of them touch on the ending, so save those until everyone has finished.
S.D. Read is happy to hear from book clubs. Use the email link on the home page to get in touch.
The tagline says: If you take what isn't yours, there's always a price to pay. Who pays the price in the novel, and is it always the people who took the relics?
The relics pass through unsuspecting hands. Which of those characters did you feel most for, and why?
Ghost stories often work by what they leave unseen. Which moment unsettled you most, and what made it work?
A haunted priest, a blunt medium and an unconventional deliverance minister approach the spirits in very different ways. How do their beliefs and methods clash, and where do they find common ground?
Which of the three would you trust most if you were in the characters' place?
The novel opens on the night HMS Vanguard was lost in 1917, and the wreck is a real war grave. How did knowing the history change the way you read the story?
In 2025, divers raised Vanguard's bell with Royal Navy permission, so it could be shown in a museum. In the novel, objects are taken without permission. Where would you draw the line between remembering the dead and disturbing them?
S.D. Read first came across HMS Vanguard on a tea towel in an Orkney gift shop. Had you heard of the disaster before reading the book?
The story moves between the storm-lashed shores of Orkney and the chaos of Manhattan. What does each setting bring to the story?
Many of the places in the novel are real, from St Margaret's Hope to the Kitchener Memorial. Did the book make you want to visit Orkney?
The novel explores guilt, redemption and the lasting power of the past. Which character changes most by the end?
Did the ending feel like a resolution, or does the past still have a hold?
