I have so many feelings about this book, which hit on more than one of my nerdy passions, most notably the fate of the Lost Franklin Expedition. I expected historical fiction and got a mystery that kept me reading late into the night.

Lady Franklin is the wife of Captain Sir John Franklin, an Arctic explorer who disappeared along with his crew. After many attempts have been made by men to find him have failed, Lady Jane Franklin decides that women should have a chance. In 1853 she hires Virginia Reeve, a guide from California, to lead an all-female group into the Arctic. A dozen women join up but a year later Virginia is on trial for murder and only five of the women are in the courtroom. The story unfolds by cutting between the trial, the expedition, and Virginia’s past life.

From the plot description one may expect a kick-ass feminist book, and I do consider this book to be feminist in the sense that it prioritizes the experiences and lives of women, celebrates their intelligence and capability, and explores their complexity as people as well as the intersectional barriers they face in trying to live full lives. However, the story is not as simplistic as the following comment from Lady Jane Franklin might suggest:

Women can do far more than the narrow lens of society deems fitting. I suspect there is nothing, literally nothing, of which women are not capable.

Certainly the women of this book are capable of amazing things, but their characters and their voyage are much more complex. Because this is a mystery, everyone has ulterior motives, secrets, and flaws. It’s a joy to see all these things reveal themselves in the course of the well-constructed story. There were many things that didn’t make sense to me until late in the book when they clicked beautifully together. There were even a few things that didn’t make sense to me until I read the afterword and looked stuff up.

While you don’t have to know a lot about Victorian Arctic exploration to enjoy the book, I found many decisions and plot twists to be especially fascinating in contrast to the decisions made by real explorers, especially as pertains to the value of life versus victory.

This is a book that demands a re-read, because so many things that don’t make sense at first do make sense later. I especially enjoyed the way the diversity of the group gradually reveals itself in terms of class, gender, sexuality, race, and other traits. It’s also a book that’s hard to review because the things I loved the most are spoilers. I liked the language and description, and felt I could really feel the tactile world around the women and see through their eyes.

As I mentioned, even after the reveals, a few things did not make sense to me. I struggled with the concept that anyone would go on an expedition, however limited in scope, with so many unknowns and with only one person in the group with any ice experience whatsoever, regardless of the amount of money offered. I found the lack of routine, training, and discipline on the ship on the way to the Arctic to be appalling, enough so that I spent a lot of time trying to rewrite that part of the story in my head, although some of that makes more sense much later in the book. Like most armchair traveling history nerds I have very definite ideas about how things should be and I was very upset when they didn’t go my way. In particular, I don’t believe for a second that Virginia would not have input and veto power over the exact nature and quantity of her supplies, a decision that, in the book, is left to her patron Lady Franklin. If there’s anything you’d think she’d have learned from an early childhood experience (which I’m also a huge nerd about) it’s the importance of having complete control over your supplies. It challenged my suspension of disbelief, since an expedition leader would have much more control over that aspect, as well as others, of the trip.

Quibbles aside, I loved this book. It kept me in suspense and when it was over I wanted to read it again. It sent me down many Google rabbit holes, which is my favorite kind of book. I recommend this for people who aren’t averse to ambiguity, who like stories of adventure and exploration as well as intersectional examinations of women’s lives, and to people who like mystery/thrillers.

For a real-life kickass woman in the Arctic, check out Kickass Women in History: Ada Blackjack.