Artic Kill - Russia's ambitions know no boundaries

The Polaris expedition, the failed first U.S. expedition to the North Pole, is one of the strangest in the history of Arctic misadventure. It was marked by the mysterious death of its leader, Capt. Charles Francis Hall, and by bickering between different factions of the crew, both before and after their leader's death. After marooning 18 of its members, including officer George Tyson, on an ice floe (where they drifted for six months until rescued by another ship), the expedition ended when the vessel was abandoned by the remainder of the crew. In clean, fast-paced prose, Henderson (coauthor of And the Sea Will Tell) aptly conveys daily life on the ship and reconstructs its mood and politics vividly. He succeeds, too, at re-creating characters from among the crew, interspersing the thoughts of various men with dialogue, thereby immersing the reader in the story. Perhaps Henderson could have extracted more drama from the captain's death: in the final chapter, he explores in detail the possibility of foul play and the dying captain's suspicions that he was being poisoned, well after the description of the death itself. But he handles the story of the group that gets separated from the ship smoothly, having wisely focused on George Tyson, the leader of the stranded men, throughout the book. With narrative and descriptive skill, he chronicles the group's attempt to survive the Arctic winter and one another's treachery. In the end, Henderson casts significant doubt on the official inquiry into Hall's death, citing the inquiry's transcripts and drawing on the results of an autopsy performed on Hall's exhumed body in 1968 that reveal high levels of arsenic. Fans of adventure writing will appreciate this fine book. (Feb.)Forecast: Once again, two titles on the same subject will be released within shelving dates of one another; in this case, the rival, due out a week earlier, is Trial by Ice, by Richard Parry. Both are worthy books, though the Henderson is the worthier, but which the public flocks to remains to be seen.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In June 1871, prominent Arctic explorer Charles Francis Hall set sail for the North Pole aboard the U.S.S. Polaris, never to return. After struggling for years to fund an expedition to the Pole, Congress had finally appropriated the funds to purchase a wooden "screw tug" that was later rechristened Polaris after the North Star. From the outset there was trouble between Hall, his scientists, and the crew. The captain turned out to be a drunkard, and the scientists were reluctant to obey orders. Upon his return from a two-week sledge journey, the seemingly healthy and vibrant Hall became violently ill and suddenly died. The captain thought the Polaris was sinking and jettisoned half of the ship's supplies onto the ice. Then, a fierce storm separated the ship from the shore and left half of the crew stranded on the ice for 197 Arctic winter days. Best-selling author and former journalism professor Henderson (And the Sea Will Tell), who served in the Arctic while in the navy, spent many weeks researching primary source materials in the National Archives. To solve the mystery surrounding Hall's death, he uses testimony from the Congressional inquest as well as a 1968 autopsy utilizing DNA evidence. A factual historical mystery written by a gifted storyteller, this book should be popular in public libraries. John Kenny, San Francisco P.L.

Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Full Body Burden is a haunting work of narrative nonfiction about a young woman, Kristen Iversen, growing up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant once designated "the most contaminated site in America." It's the story of a childhood and adolescence in the shadow of the Cold War, in a landscape at once startlingly beautiful and--unknown to those who lived there--tainted with invisible yet deadly particles of plutonium.

It's also a book about the destructive power of secrets--both family and government. Her father's hidden liquor bottles, the strange cancers in children in the neighborhood, the truth about what was made at Rocky Flats (cleaning supplies, her mother guessed)--best not to inquire too deeply into any of it.

But as Iversen grew older, she began to ask questions. She learned about the infamous 1969 Mother's Day fire, in which a few scraps of plutonium spontaneously ignited and--despite the desperate efforts of firefighters--came perilously close to a "criticality," the deadly blue flash that signals a nuclear chain reaction. Intense heat and radiation almost melted the roof, which nearly resulted in an explosion that would have had devastating consequences for the entire Denver metro area. Yet the only mention of the fire was on page 28 of the Rocky Mountain News, underneath a photo of the Pet of the Week. In her early thirties, Iversen even worked at Rocky Flats for a time, typing up memos in which accidents were always called "incidents."

And as this memoir unfolds, it reveals itself as a brilliant work of investigative journalism--a detailed and shocking account of the government's sustained attempt to conceal the effects of the toxic and radioactive waste released by Rocky Flats, and of local residents' vain attempts to seek justice in court. Here, too, are vivid portraits of former Rocky Flats workers--from the healthy, who regard their work at the plant with pride and patriotism, to the ill or dying, who battle for compensation for cancers they got on the job.

Based on extensive interviews, FBI and EPA documents, and class-action testimony, this taut, beautifully written book promises to have a very long half-life.

A nail-biting tour through the North alongside the legendary ice pilots, whose story created an international television sensation.

Based on the top-rated TV show now airing on History Channel and Global TV in Canada, and in eleven other countries around the world, The Ice Pilots follows a group of pilots in Yellowknife, Canada, and the extraordinary adventures of the most unorthodox flyboys on earth.

Renegade Arctic airline Buffalo Airways defies the cold and the competition by using World War 2-era propeller planes to haul vital fuel, supplies and passengers to remote outposts across the world's last great wilderness of northern Canada. From rookie pilots trying to earn their wings in dangerous conditions to vintage planes that flew over Normandy on D-Day, The Ice Pilots brings its readers on an engaging romp through Arctic skies.

The intrepid Michael Vlessides -- the writer behind Les Stroud's bestselling Survivorman books -- braves bone-chilling temperatures, treacherous landings and iconic owner Buffalo" Joe McBryan's famous temper to capture behind-the-scenes stories about the ice pilots, the crew, the passengers and the communities they serve. Weaving in history about bush pilots, plane crashes and the north, Vlessides has crafted an entertaining, informative narrative about aviation: the lifeline of this remote and icy world.