Book Review | A Haunting in the Arctic by C.J. Cooke

In 1901, Nicky wakes up on board the Ormen, a whaling ship on its last voyage. She’s weeks away from land, stuck with a hostile crew. 100 years later, Ormen’s wreck has washed up on the coast of Iceland. Explorer Dominique wants to document its final days. But onboard the boat, she uncovers something terrible…

If her capture had purchased something she did not yet understand, what would her freedom cost?

A Haunting in the Arctic is a dual timeline historical mystery where two women are fighting to survive across time. While her husband is at war, Nicky is kidnapped and brought onto her father’s ship. I thought her story was harrowing with tragedy and betrayals, but there were multiple scenes of assault, which to me were unnecessary. The selkie folklore is touched upon, but there were not enough of those fantastical elements for me to feel invested. I didn’t feel that Nicky’s plot concluded satisfactorily.

Dominique intrigued me at first because I like exploration stories! She meets three strangers who are also investigating the wrecked ship, but their behaviour seems suspicious. Like Nicky’s story, the way Dominique’s story concluded was not satisfying because it almost undoes everything we have learned previously. The connection between Nicky and Dominique was flimsy and unconvincing. I’ve enjoyed the author’s previous books because they had great female characters, but here they were mostly portrayed as victims. The book attempts to explore female rage and how trauma lingers through generations, but it didn’t hit the mark.

A Haunting in the Arctic was a miss for me, but fans of historical fiction would enjoy this.

About the author: C.J. Cooke

Photo by Torsten Dederichs