WORDS Jenny Duffy

In 1845, naturalist Eliot Saxby embarks on a voyage to the Arctic to find traces of the extinct Great Auks. The crew of the Amethyst are not all that they seem, and the Arctic, “dangerous and unearthly”, leaves no one unaffected. Ghosts from the past, dark secrets, madness and depravity ensue.

I found that, until the Amethyst actually neared the Arctic, the novel was quite slow. It probably would have benefited from being cut down a bit (373 pages long). However, once I got into the tale I really enjoyed the sea-faring scenes, and the adventure element. The novel was, however, much darker than I’d anticipated. There are deeper themes in the effect the Arctic has on the characters, and questions of human nature are raised.

The descriptions of the Arctic are stunning: “The worlds of ocean and ice were meeting in a frontier of rage, as if the Earth had torn in two along this line.” The author Jeremy Page evokes the dazzling whiteness, the extreme weather, and the sheerness and harshness of the Arctic: “This is a place, if ever there was a place, where you could disappear.” He also captures the cruelty of the hunts in some very violent scenes, and the white quartz ice is often stained red with blood.

The characters on board are eccentric to say the least. Captain Skyes has a ruthless streak, but also a penchant for embroidery; the first mate called French is mysterious and secretive, and the other passengers on board, Edward and Clara, are just as strange. Drug-addled Edward Bletchley dresses flamboyantly in check trousers and fox-fur hats, and the beautiful Clara, hidden away on board, is a ghostly reminder of the naturalist Eliot’s past. Eliot himself is perhaps the least memorable of all the characters. That is not to say that he lacks personality, and his love of the natural world and wonder at the Arctic allow the reader to see it all through new eyes. His normality also makes him a more reliable narrator than Edward would be. However, even Eliot is not without his secrets.

If you like this, check out Michael Smith’s An Unsung Hero, the biography of Irishman and polar explorer Tom Crean, and his heroism on both Scott’s Discovery expedition and Shackleton’s Endurance expedition to the Antarctic. It is a thrilling (and true) story of adventure, strength and loyalty.