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 - 1901, the story of Nicky, daughter of a shipping tycoon who gets kidnapped and wakes up aboard her father's whaling ship named Ormen. The ship's already set sail from the harbor on the latest whaling trip and so Nicky is stuck with the sailors, all of them desperate, belligerent men who consider a woman's presence on board to be a curse. We cut across to 2023, hundreds of years later, to Dominque, a young urban explorer who is camped outside the abandoned ship ormen, off the coast of Iceland and teams up with three like-minded explorers out to film the historic breaking of this old whaling ship from the turn of last century. But the more they dig up the history of the ship, a lot of secrets come tumbling out and not everything is as it should be. Including the mystery woman whose form keeps appearing and disappearing on the ship and the ice around them. 

Nicky's narrative left me uncomfortable, at the casual violence and the extreme brutality that goes on board Ormen. Nicky is a prisoner and has no means of escape the wrath of the vindictive, cruel men. I wouldnt elaborate further on this but the Nicky's story is also one of courage, tinged with slivers of desperate hope. The violence and the transformation of Nicky's bruised body and broken mind is an essential part of the narrative. Dominique's story, despite being the weaker on paper, actually came out pretty exciting. Her gradual friendship with the three strangers and the adventures they encounter keeps the narrative on the boil but those final few chapters were terrifying and tense, absolutely mind-boggling in its intensity. 

A Haunting in the Arctic is a wonderful immersive book wrapped in layers. But these layers do nothing to keep the icy fingers of dread out, as you get deeper into the story. The cold beautiful landscapes of Iceland or ice-floats of Greenland are all characters as much in this book. It's a ghost story in old classic style - not slash, jump scares or gore but it's the whole real deal of good old creepy, downright atmospheric and mind-numbingly haunting. Highly recommended, one of the best recent horror books I have read.