In 1853 Boston, a wealthy Englishwoman, Lady Jane Franklin, secretly recruits experienced trail guide Virginia Reeve and a dozen other women for an all-female Arctic expedition. The women, with a variety of backgrounds and skills, aim to find--or find out the fate of--Lady Jane's husband, Sir John, who disappeared in the Arctic with his men. A year later, Virginia is back in Boston and standing trial for murder. In her gripping fourth novel, The Arctic Fury, Greer Macallister (Woman 99; Girl in Disguise) weaves together two timelines and multiple narrative strands, exploring what happened on the women's brief expedition, and why several of them did not come back.
Macallister tells her story chiefly from Virginia's point of view, bringing in her past experience as a trail guide in the American West and her complicated relationship with a fellow guide. But each of the women gets at least a chapter to tell her own story: artist Christabel, taciturn nurse Dove, officers' wives and dear friends Ebba and Althea, spoiled socialite Caprice (whose disappearance is the main impetus for Virginia's trial). Many of the women are surprised to be chosen for Franklin's expedition, and all have their own reasons for saying yes. Things start going wrong even before the group leaves Boston, and Virginia must muster all her tact and courage to lead her ill-assorted crew to the far north.
Through their varied experiences and often contentious interactions, Macallister examines sexism and racism in the pre-Civil War United States, and builds a compelling mosaic of a story. She also deftly uses their multiple viewpoints to call into question the notion of truth: what it really is, who gets to tell it, how it may be buried, elided or co-opted under tense circumstances. The courtroom scenes, dominated by decidedly unsympathetic white men, also force Virginia and her audience (both readers and witnesses) to consider what happened out there on the ice, and which parts of it matter.
The Arctic Fury is not for the faint of heart: at times Macallister thrusts her characters almost aggressively into hardship, peril and gruesome situations. It is not a clear-cut narrative of adventure, love or justice, although it contains the seeds of all those things. But it is certainly compelling. Readers who love historical fiction, strong women and unusual settings will find all three--as well as a couple of truly inventive twists--in Macallister's novel. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams
Shelf Talker: Greer Macallister's compelling fourth novel follows an all-female Arctic expedition that ends in a murder trial.