The Terror meets Yellowjackets as a disgraced Arctic explorer sets out on a voyage to track down his former crewmate, only to be confronted by the ghosts of his cannibalistic past; from the Bram Stoker Award nominated author of All the White Spaces. Perfect for fans of Michelle Paver and Stephen Graham Jones.
William Day should be an acclaimed Arctic explorer. But after a failed expedition to find the fabled Open Polar Sea, in which his men only survived by eating their comrades, he returned in disgrace. A cannibal. A murderer.
Thirteen years later, his second-in-command, Jesse Stevens, has gone missing in the same waters. Perhaps this is Day's chance to restore his tarnished reputation by bringing Stevens – the man who's haunted his whole life – back home. But when the rescue mission into the frozen wastes becomes an uncanny journey into his own past, Day must face up to the things he's done.
Aboard ship, Day must also contend with unwanted passengers: a reporter obsessively digging up the truth about the first expedition, and Stevens's wife, a spiritualist whose séances both fascinate and frighten. Following a trail of cryptic messages, gaunt bodies, and old bones, their search becomes more and more unnerving, as it becomes clear that – for Day – the restless dead are never far behind.
Genre: Horror
William Day should be an acclaimed Arctic explorer. But after a failed expedition to find the fabled Open Polar Sea, in which his men only survived by eating their comrades, he returned in disgrace. A cannibal. A murderer.
Thirteen years later, his second-in-command, Jesse Stevens, has gone missing in the same waters. Perhaps this is Day's chance to restore his tarnished reputation by bringing Stevens – the man who's haunted his whole life – back home. But when the rescue mission into the frozen wastes becomes an uncanny journey into his own past, Day must face up to the things he's done.
Aboard ship, Day must also contend with unwanted passengers: a reporter obsessively digging up the truth about the first expedition, and Stevens's wife, a spiritualist whose séances both fascinate and frighten. Following a trail of cryptic messages, gaunt bodies, and old bones, their search becomes more and more unnerving, as it becomes clear that – for Day – the restless dead are never far behind.
Genre: Horror
Praise for this book
"Suffused with dread - and longing - from page one. A haunting read, in every sense of the word. I couldn't put it down!" - S A Barnes
"Chillingly, thrillingly existential, packed with heartache and dread. WHERE THE DEAD WAITis a Conradian trek into an Arctic heart of darkness, where the past is (literally) present, and the present marches us inch by inch towards our shared, unspeakable fate." - Nat Cassidy
"With ALL THE WHITE SPACES, Ally Wilkes chilled readers to the bone, and now with WHERE THE DEAD WAIT, she sucks the very marrow out from them. Hallucinatory, haunting, and hunger-panged, this frostbitten novel gnawed away at my very sanity and I loved every nibble of it." - Clay McLeod Chapman
"WHERE THE DEAD WAIT is a full-body plunge into nineteenth-century seafaring, Arctic survival, and the frigid darkness of the human psyche, in a setting as frostbitten and dread-inducing as the ghosts that haunt it. I was moved by Captain Day's inner war of longing and regret, and rewarded by the beautiful, immersive prose. With her second polar outing, Wilkes stakes her claim as the new ice-master of horror fiction." - Luke Dumas
"Ally Wilkes weaves polar adventure and gothic horror together with wonderfully chilling results. The pages are full of creeping dread and malevolence that will linger with you long after you close the book." - Christopher Golden
"Beautiful, brilliant writing about good men (and bad) facing the unimaginable. I was swallowed whole by Ally Wilkes' terrifying story of Arctic survival. Dare I say it's better than Dan Simmons' THE TERROR?" - Alma Katsu
"An astonishing achievement. The writing is raw, bloody and powerful, and makes me wonder if Ally Wilkes has fire and ice flowing in her veins. This is a book not so much to be described as experienced, so most definitely don't miss it!" - Alison Littlewood
"An ice-cold brew of cannibalism and ghoulish horror served up by an author with a visceral feel for the extremes of polar exploration. Powerful stuff indeed!" - Michelle Paver
"Harrowing and clawing with the iciest fingernails. The only thing harder to escape than the bloodthirsty sea is the longing and regret. WHERE THE DEAD WAIT proves that the frozen nightmare is the domain of Ally Wilkes; we're just left to survive it." - Hailey Piper
"Chillingly, thrillingly existential, packed with heartache and dread. WHERE THE DEAD WAITis a Conradian trek into an Arctic heart of darkness, where the past is (literally) present, and the present marches us inch by inch towards our shared, unspeakable fate." - Nat Cassidy
"With ALL THE WHITE SPACES, Ally Wilkes chilled readers to the bone, and now with WHERE THE DEAD WAIT, she sucks the very marrow out from them. Hallucinatory, haunting, and hunger-panged, this frostbitten novel gnawed away at my very sanity and I loved every nibble of it." - Clay McLeod Chapman
"WHERE THE DEAD WAIT is a full-body plunge into nineteenth-century seafaring, Arctic survival, and the frigid darkness of the human psyche, in a setting as frostbitten and dread-inducing as the ghosts that haunt it. I was moved by Captain Day's inner war of longing and regret, and rewarded by the beautiful, immersive prose. With her second polar outing, Wilkes stakes her claim as the new ice-master of horror fiction." - Luke Dumas
"Ally Wilkes weaves polar adventure and gothic horror together with wonderfully chilling results. The pages are full of creeping dread and malevolence that will linger with you long after you close the book." - Christopher Golden
"Beautiful, brilliant writing about good men (and bad) facing the unimaginable. I was swallowed whole by Ally Wilkes' terrifying story of Arctic survival. Dare I say it's better than Dan Simmons' THE TERROR?" - Alma Katsu
"An astonishing achievement. The writing is raw, bloody and powerful, and makes me wonder if Ally Wilkes has fire and ice flowing in her veins. This is a book not so much to be described as experienced, so most definitely don't miss it!" - Alison Littlewood
"An ice-cold brew of cannibalism and ghoulish horror served up by an author with a visceral feel for the extremes of polar exploration. Powerful stuff indeed!" - Michelle Paver
"Harrowing and clawing with the iciest fingernails. The only thing harder to escape than the bloodthirsty sea is the longing and regret. WHERE THE DEAD WAIT proves that the frozen nightmare is the domain of Ally Wilkes; we're just left to survive it." - Hailey Piper
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Used availability for Ally Wilkes's Where the Dead Wait