The Arctic Fury: A Novel

by Greer Macallister

Overview

A dozen women join a secret 1850s Arctic expedition—and a sensational murder trial unfolds when some of them don't come back.

Eccentric Lady Jane Franklin makes an outlandish offer to adventurer Virginia Reeve: take a dozen women, trek into the Arctic, and find her husband's lost expedition. Four parties have failed to find him, and Lady Franklin wants a radical new approach: put the women in charge.

A year later, Virginia stands trial for murder. Survivors of the expedition willing to publicly support her sit in the front row. There are only five. What happened out there on the ice?

Set against the unforgiving backdrop of one of the world's most inhospitable locations, USA Today bestselling author Greer Macallister uses the true story of Lady Jane Franklin's tireless attempts to find her husband's lost expedition as a jumping-off point to spin a tale of bravery, intrigue, perseverance and hope.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728215709
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	12/01/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	180,285
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Raised in the Midwest, Greer Macallister earned her MFA in creative writing from American University. Her historical novels, including The Magician’s Lie, Girl in Disguise, Woman 99, and The Arctic Fury, have been named Book of the Month, Indie Next, LibraryReads, Target Book Club, and Amazon Best Book of the Month picks and optioned for film and television. As G. R. Macallister, she is the author of the Five Queendoms series, which Paste Magazine called “the best feminist fantasy series you probably haven’t read yet.” A regular contributor to Writer Unboxed and the Chicago Review of Books, she lives with her family in Boston. 

Editorial Reviews

10/05/2020

Macallister (Woman 99) delivers an exciting if thin historical thriller based on real events. In 1850s Boston, adventurer Virginia Reeve is summoned by Lady Jane Franklin, who asks Virginia to lead a women’s expedition to the Arctic in order to find out what happened to her husband, Sir John Franklin, who disappeared there with his crew. Virginia agrees to lead the team of explorers, which includes a wealthy young woman, Caprice Collins, who undermines Virginia’s authority from the start. As Virginia and crew travel north, flashes forward find Virginia on trial for Caprice’s murder. Macallister pulls no punches depicting the grisly, dangerous realities of 19th-century Arctic journeys, and while tensions run high throughout to the shocking conclusion, the prose is run-of-the-mill (“She’d been through far worse, of course, but this always amazed her: how the worst pain, no matter how terrible, could recede into the past”) and the characters one-dimensional, with Virginia being cloyingly noble and brave, and Caprice coming across as a single-note cowardly interloper willing to step on anyone to get her way. While Macallister’s fans will enjoy, others will be disappointed. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"In her enthralling new novel, The Arctic Fury, Greer Macallister takes her readers on a thrilling, if arduous, journey to the Arctic north, alongside Virginia Reeve and her all female expedition in a quest to find the ships of a lost explorer. Through alternating glimpses into the voyage itself and the murder trial afterwards, the enterprise and its secrets — both tantalizing and terrorizing — reveal themselves in turn, sweeping readers along until they reach the story's spell-binding conclusion. A captivating look at the manner in which the "truth" is formed by the lens through which it is perceived, a lens formed by time, place, and views on women." — Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling author of The Only Woman in the Room, Lady Clementine, Carnegie’s Maid, and The Other Einstein

"An unforgiving, snow-dazzling landscape, a cast of extraordinary, fierce women, and a nail-biting courtroom drama that wrecked my nails makes this historical gem unputdownable!" — Kim Michele Richardson, New York Times bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

From the Publisher