I have read Rapture at Sea and found it most instructive technique-wise--besides definitely enjoying the read. As regards technique, I was particularly interested to see how the authors made Malcolm, Bob and Jeff so distinctly different from one another, even though they were all basically unpleasant characters, while having no obvious distinguishing marks such as Ambrose's dog-collar or Dr Davis' disability.

As regards the book being a great read, I found the last chapter (Ten) grippingly powerful--not to be put down once I'd started to read it! The divine manifestations were startling but at the same time fully appropriate. And baffling to the dimly aware mundane characters. First, the foghorn, the thunder, and the suspension of all electricity; then, later, the fog, the stillness of silence, the aurora round the "Aurora" (the ship), and the withdrawal of the star. And everyone was as bewildered as if a thief had been, and gone, in the night. 

And as for the effect of it all on them! First, all the "religious nutters" were, suddenly and with no warning, "changed in the twinkling of an eye," and not seen again. And at the same moment there were the resurrections: Ernest's after his short spell in "sheol" (not so names in the book); and Rose's a couple of hours or so after she died.

The majority "left behind" came differently to that realisation: Mavis readily and almost at once; Ambrose, tardily, and devastatingly, when logic forced him; Malcolm, not at all; likewise Bob and Jeff; the self-absorbed Dr Davis and Mrs Fellows belatedly beginning to catch on. And, notwithstanding the evidence, including media reports, there was the work-a-day unawareness (induced by the compulsion of their profession?) of the ship's officers, especially the purser.

Altogether a very satisfying read! And thought-provoking, like all the best books. I'm glad to have this book on my shelves.