Where the Dead Wait

July 1, 2023

Victorian explorer William Day once led a disastrous expedition to the Arctic that resulted in loss of life and cannibalism. Now, Jesse Stevens, his second-in-command on that venture, is lost on another Arctic expedition, and Day is determined to find him and bring him home (if only to redeem himself). Not surprisingly, as Wilkes is a Bram Stoker Award nominee, mysterious messages and rattling old bones soon figure in the plot, though this is billed not as horror but as a thriller. Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2023 Library Journal

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2023

After finding success with Antarctic horror in All the White Spaces, Wilkes returns with the story of Willam Day, a failed Arctic explorer whose 1869 crew resorted to cannibalism in order to survive. Disgraced, Day has spent the last 13 years dealing with his guilt, until he is called on to help rescue a shipmate from that mission: Jesse Stevens, now lost, once again, in the Arctic. Despite serious misgivings, Day heads back into the danger of the unforgiving landscape, this time with Stevens's wife, a noted American spiritualist, on board. Told from Day's perspective in alternating time frames, the novel shows both journeys going from bad to worse, guided by a haunted man who is actively unraveling. Wilkes also leans into the slow-burn pacing, filling the book with detailed descriptions of the boat, the topography, and the characters, a narrative choice that unsettlingly mimics both the plight of the crew and the obsession which anchors the terror. VERDICT Fans of the historical horror Alma Katsu or polar exploration nonfiction, such as In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides, will rejoice, but the intense psychological horror and isolation will also appeal to those who enjoy space horror similar to Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes.

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 16, 2023
Wilkes follows up 2022’s All the White Spaces with a spectacular tale of cold, cannibalism, and consequences. In 1869, William Day inherits command of a ship exploring Arctic waters after several of its senior officers die of scurvy. When the ship is immobilized by ice, its food stores quickly run out. Day, with the support of second-in-command Jesse Stevens, decides the crew must eat the dead to survive. After the survivors are rescued and Day returns to England, he is vilified as a cannibal and a murderer, and his career appears to be over—until, 13 years later, a ship led by Stevens is lost in the same waters the pair once sailed together. Day is desperate to save Stevens, for whom he secretly harbors romantic feelings, so the British Admiralty reluctantly gives him the resources to mount a search, on two conditions: his expedition will lack official sanction, and he’ll be accompanied by Stevens’s wife, Olive, a noted American spiritualist, and a journalist obsessed with the earlier disaster. Eerie events follow—Olive’s shipboard séances seeking guidance to her husband’s location call up the smell of roasting meat, strange noises below deck convince the crew that something uncanny is on board, and Day begins to see Stevens in increasingly violent apparitions that suggest their long-ago cannibalism may have been born from more than pure necessity. Expertly interweaving the two timelines, Wilkes crafts rich physical and psychological landscapes that deepen her terrifying tale as it barrels toward an unforgettable crescendo. This is a breathtaking achievement.

November 1, 2023
The Victorian obsession with exploring the Arctic sets the stage for a gothic thriller. In the 1860s, a young British man named William Day sails north aboard a ship called the Reckoning on an excursion to the Arctic, one of many in those years that aimed to discover a passage over the top of the world. None of those explorers ever found that open passage, but this trip ended in worse disaster--the ship wrecked, and during the long months they were marooned amid the inhospitable landscape, the crew turned to cannibalism. Day was one of the rescued survivors who returned to London, and he has lived for 13 years in disgrace when the Admiralty, to his surprise, calls on him to undertake another voyage. It seems one of his former shipmates, the charismatic Jesse Stevens, has sailed for the Arctic again and promptly disappeared. Day is also surprised to discover that Jesse has a wife now, and she is funding the trip--and going along. Olive Emeline Stevens is a renowned psychic medium from the United States, and she is determined to find her missing husband. Day is uneasy about everything involved in the trip but agrees to go; he is very deeply in the closet and just as deeply in love with Jesse. The novel begins well, with raw, energetic prose and a sense of adventure undercut by dread that's downright thrilling. But soon, like all those ruined ships that dot the frozen North, the book gets stuck. Day's traumatic memories and obsession with Jesse become repetitious, few characters are developed beyond sketches, the gothic tone slides into Grand Guignol, and the story turns from chilling to numbing. By the time the book reaches its Heart of Darkness finale, the horror is no longer surprising. After an intriguing start, the story founders on a repetitious plot and an overlarge serving of cannibalism.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2023
Victorian explorer Captain William Day will forever remember the polar expedition of the Reckoning, in which the last of his crew only survived by succumbing to cannibalism. Many years later, Day's closest confidante from the Reckoning has gone missing on his own expedition, and Day is tasked with finding him. The rescue mission is fraught with uncertainty and animosity, and, haunted by the ghosts of his past, Day struggles with flashbacks and hallucinations that threaten to send him down the same disastrous path he followed before. Wilkes' (All the White Spaces, 2022) interest in polar expeditions is evident in her intricate descriptions; the sense of place is remarkable, and the survival scenes stomach churning. Past and present accounts are often blurred by the slowness of the plot, making it difficult to keep details straight, and the conclusion inevitably falls short. Still, Wilkes provides strong examples of managing inner turmoil and past regrets. Recommended for fans of survival horror and sea voyage tales, such as books by Julia Armfield and Ian McGuire.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.