Let me start off by saying this book is very well researched and I knew nothing about The Franklin expedition before this book. However, there is so much packed in here that it seems to get bogged down. But how cool to finally find a ship wreck after more than a century!

Arctic buffs will definitely enjoy it. I’m not disappointed I read it but I wish I enjoyed it more.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

I had never heard about this before so I certainly learned some new things. As with most books of this sort though, for me at least, the author struggled to convey all of the facts while still making it an interesting read.

ICE GHOSTS by Paul Watson tells the story of the Franklin Expedition which was lost in the Arctic ice in 1845 and of the modern (2014) discovery of its wreck.

The Franklin Expedition was envisioned as an attempt to find the Northwest Passage between Europe and China. However, numerous problems, (tainted food, inadequate clothing) arose and the ships (HMS Erebus and Terror) with all 129 aboard were lost. Unsuccessful contemporary rescues were tried, including those funded by Lady Jane Franklin. Inuit people had an oral history of some of these events and Louie Kamookak, great grandson of an Inuit storyteller and grandson of an Irish trader, decided to record those stories and to look for the wreck. It is that adventure which comprises the second part of ICE GHOSTS.

Paul Watson is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who produced an extremely well-researched work, receiving a starred review from Kirkus. ICE GHOSTS made me think of Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson and Endurance by Alfred Lansing; two other non-fiction titles I would also highly recommend.

I'm a sucker for polar stories so I was pretty sure that this mystery adventure would be right up my alley. Regrettably, while there's a very good story in here. it's bogged down by inconsistencies and what can only be described as "stuff." Part of the problem for me could be that I've read better fiction and non-fiction set in both the Arctic and Antarctica. This would have benefited from a strong editing- from someone willing to slash, consolidate, and fact check. Tanks to netgalley for the ARC. I had high hopes but this did not fill the bill.

In 1847 Sir John Franklin left England and his adoring wife Lady Jane to seek the fabled Northwest Passage. He was 59 years old and it was his fourth journey to the Arctic. He had survived starvation on his second journey. This expedition was prepared with three years of food, included new-fangled canned foods. He had powerful, heated ships. The explorer Ross promised to rescue Franklin if he did not come home.

Nothing went as planned. Extreme ice stranded the ships. Their canned food was tainted. Their maritime boots and clothing were inadequate. Franklin died and his men left the boats encased in ice, journeyed on foot, and died of exposure and starvation.

Lady Jane pressed for a search and rescue mission and spent her fortune in the quest to find her husband. For over a hundred years, enthralled by the mysterious disappearance, men went on the hazardous journey to the Arctic, hoping to solve the mystery of the lost Franklin Expedition.

My interest in polar exploration dates to junior high when I read The Great White South about the lost Scott Expedition. Over the years I've read books including Frances Spufford's I Shall Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination and Knud Rasmussen's biography White Eskimo by Stephen Bown. I loved the historical fiction book based on Franklin Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett and Dan Simmons' supernatural take in The Terror.

The first part of Ice Ghosts recounts the history of the expedition and the early rescue attempts, presenting the historical facts. The second part of the book is a wonderful examination of the the modern search for Franklin, including Inuit culture and history and their contribution of new information about Franklin.

Watson vividly describes the experience of the Arctic--the initial thrill followed by the freezing that can take mere minutes. The months of darkness and isolation. This environment demands cooperation to survive. I loved learning about the Inuit culture and people and their contribution to the knowledge of Franklin through their oral histories.

Louie Kamookak is the great-grandson of an Inuk storyteller and respected shaman who assisted the the Inuit anthropologist Knud Rasmussen. Rasmussen recorded the Inuit way of life as it was before being disrupted by Europeans, including enforced separation of children into mission schools where they faced abuse, resulting in 4,100 deaths.

Kamookak also had a grandfather who was an Irish trader, Gibson, who had found a marker left by an 1859 search party, and who found skeletons in another location. Kamookak's grandmother had told him that as a girl she had seen Franklin artifacts; she had taken a blunt metal knife and refashioned it into an ice chisel.

A history of tragedy and bad luck shared by Franklin searchers did not prevent Kamookak from an obsession to learn more. He recorded oral histories from his elders to understand what had happened to the expedition. The native people knew where Franklin's men had died and where the ships settled.

The search for the Terror, Erebus, and Franklin's grave has become an international battleground. Artifacts left in situ can be disturbed by a storm and lost. But if they are collected they will soon decay. As climate change melts the ice it turns the land into swamps. Oil companies hope to drill in the Arctic, which would endanger the environment; they have funded researchers whose knowledge and new equipment are helpful to their goal.

The ships have now been found and some artifacts collected. But the grave of Franklin is yet to be discovered. The 'epic hunt' remains, as does our fascination. Watson's book is an important contribution and is sure to help another generation fall under the thrall of the tragic story of the Franklin Expedition.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

I received a free Kindle copy of the book courtesy of Net Galley and W. W. Norton & Company - the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my history book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.

I rquested this book as I am interested in history and the description sounded interesting to me. It is the first book by Paul Watson that I have read.

This is a book that is well researched and written. It goes into great detail about the expedition itself and the numerous attempts over the years to find Sir John Franklin and his expedition. It also focuses on Lady Jane Franklin's efforts to keep the searches alive to bring some form of resolution to the expedition. The one weakness in the book is the lack of maps and pictures. While there were some in the book, there should be many more that could have been used to add to the narrative.

I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in exploration, lost expeditions or the arctic.

John Franklin and a crew of 129 set off into the freezing Arctic to uncover the northwest passage. When he never returns, his widow spends an untold amount of time and money to find him. When nothing more is uncovered but rumors, it seems that the expeditions fate will remain a mystery. Over more than 150 years, people around the world delve into the mystery, each uncovering more and more of the story. Finally, in 2014 one of the two ships is found.

Well written and engaging, the author lays out the history of the Franklin Expedition and the decades of mystery that follow. What I found most fascinating about this book was the cultural descriptions of the Inuit. I know very little about the Inuit and found their customs and history of oral tradition to be intriguing. Overall, highly recommended.

An excellent story and very well written! Author Paul Watson (the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, not the eco-terrorist of the same name) did a great job at maintaining my interest throughout the account. The book starts with the story of the Franklin expedition, one of many British attempts to discover the Northwest passage. This particular voyage was unique not only because it ended in tragedy, but because of the mystery that surrounded it for so many decades. Two ships and over a hundred and twenty men simply disappeared, and few traces of what happened to them were ever found. Until recently, that is. Watson chronicles the dozens of rescue missions and attempts to discover the fate of Franklin and his men, and then gives the story a modern update: Watson was a part of the expedition that finally discovered the last ship in 2016.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book, especially to anyone who enjoys history or adventure. Watson kept me turning the pages all the way to the very end.

I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher and was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I express in this review are entirely my own.