A Haunting in the Arctic by CJ Cooke
This was the first book from celebrated author C J Cooke that I was reading and I cannot believe I have been living under a rock, not having read anything from this prolific and talented author before! A Haunting in the Arctic is exactly what the name suggests - a book that follows the harrowing journey of a whaling ship in the brutally cold extremes of the arctic and the lives of two women, Nicky and Dominique across two different timelines, closely linked to the fate of the ship itself. Let me state this at the outset that this book is not for the fainthearted and the narrative has some extremely disturbing scenes around sexual violence, so exercise caution and be aware of this if you ever pick up this book. Having said that, C J Cooke does a bang-up job of immersing us into this extremely poignant and heart-wrenching story, melding together elements of grief and longing in an intense psychological drama with a brilliant twist by the end. The story is set across two timelines -