The Terror: A Novel

Based on the true story of two ice ships that disappeared in the Arctic Circle during the Sir John Franklin Expedition in 1845, The Terror is a meticulously researched and fascinating account of 19th century seafaring life.

"Masterfully chilling." —Entertainment Weekly

The men on board the HMS Terror—part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage—are entering a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, stranded in a nightmarish landscape of encroaching ice and darkness. Endlessly cold, they struggle to survive with poisonous rations, a dwindling coal supply, and ships buckling in the grip of crushing ice. But their real enemy is even more terrifying. There is something out there in the frigid darkness: an unseen predator stalking their ship, a monstrous terror clawing to get in.

“The best and most unusual historical novel I have read in years.” —Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe