It all starts with a chronometer that is smuggled off one of Franklin’s fated ships which had set off to traverse the unchartered Northwest Passage but mysteriously disappeared. Somehow this chronometer reappears on a mantelpiece, crudely transformed into a carriage clock. How did it get there? Before we find out we are transported to Tuktoyaktuk the most northerly point of Canada’s Northwest Territories in the present day where Nelson Nilsson is looking for his brother Bert who has mysteriously disappeared. Having read through his brother’s research papers, it appears that Bert has headed for Tuktoyaktuk. With no other leads to follow, Nelson starts here. While out looking for cigarettes he discovers Fay Morgan who has just arrived and offers her a lift. As they both get snowed in, and can’t travel any further, they delve into Bert’s research papers to try and uncover the mysteries that surround Franklin’s fated expedition and how this mysterious carriage clock came into being.

This is a really intricately woven story that intersperses historical flashbacks of the fated trip and the attempts to locate the missing ships with Nelson and Fay’s current story with their own family secrets and how the stories are all intertwined. I enjoyed the story but I did find the narrative dragged at certain points and felt that it was sometimes a bit too complicated for it's own good. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable read and I would read it again. I'd love this book to be made available in audio format and would definitely buy it.

There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

Multiple stories, multiple time periods, multiple characters, multiple voices, multiple threads – this is not a book for the faint-hearted. It’s a complex narrative that demands much concentration to keep all the threads connected, not least because it skips backwards and forwards in time with alarming regularity. It’s a fictionalised account of various polar explorations and adventures interleaved with a contemporary story, all centred around the “Arnold 294” chronometer used by Sir John Franklin and which is mysteriously discovered 150 years later. On occasion the links between the various threads seemed a bit tenuous, and it was easy to feel overwhelmed by all the research that had obviously gone into the plotting – and I still feel confused about what certain characters were actually doing. But….overall I found the novel a really immersive experience, and it just about worked for me. Being able to read it more or less in one go helped. I think that not doing so would make it even harder to keep track of everyone and every storyline. I really enjoyed it, in spite of the complexity, possibly in fact because of it, and I found reading it a really rewarding experience.