Nicky Abney Duthie is the eldest daughter of George Abney, wealthy owner of a whaling company in Dundee, Scotland. Her husband, Arthur, is away at war with the Boers, so she has been living with her parents. When she is out one day, she is attacked in the park by a suspicious-acting man and she wakes up, with a badly injured foot and 100 miles from Scotland on the Ormen, her father's only remaining whaling ship.
As it turns out, a barrel fell on her foot while she was unconscious and a nail split it down to the bone. She receives some medical treatment from the doctor on board, but it is insufficient for the severity of her injury. Captain Willingham knows who she is, but refuses to turn the ship around, despite the fact that she's been kidnapped. Her only hope is to wait until the ship docks in Skumaskot, Iceland and get a ride back home. While that's awful enough, she soon discovers that most of the men on board intend to make use of her while she is there, since she awakens later that day amidst a fog of pain medicine to find herself being raped. To make matters worse, her foot is only getting worse, with infection spreading up her leg, but the doctor says she's fine.
Lovejoy, the first mate, is particularly cruel calling her his "selkie wife" from a story about a fisherman's wife who comes on board the ship and beds the sea god each night in return for the safety of the men on board and an excellent haul. Except Nicky never signed up for this, although apparently most of the men see her as a prostitute.
She does find one kind soul in Daverley, a middle-aged man who is keeping a close eye on his nephew, Reid, a lad of almost sixteen, and it's a small thing but these two don't visit her cabin at night. She is desperate to see her husband, Arthur, once more and to let her family know what has happened to her, so she hatches a plot of escape when another whaling ship, the Erik, docks next to the Ormen. However, some news from home and a series of tragedies on board thwart her immediate plans and set her on a course for disaster.
Meanwhile, in 2023, Dominique is an "urban explorer" wanna-be who is trying to document the Ormen and its last weeks on earth on TikTok, as the Icelandic coast guard is set to pull the ship out to sea and give it a final water burial very soon. The coast of Skumaskot is barren and very dangerous, but beautiful and she is determined to do this, albeit it's a huge task for one young woman.
The Ormen was converted into a research ship in the late 1960's and in 1973, was found adrift in the Barents Sea with one badly damaged body on board, the rest of the research crew having completely vanished. Eventually, it came to rest in the deserted shark fishing village of Skumaskot, which is where Dominique pitches her tent. Well, she actually camps inside of the ship, to escape from the brutal elements.
Dom is shy by nature, but she is determined to leave her mark. However, the more time she spends on the Ormen, the more she finds herself seeing and hearing things. For one, she sees the image of a woman with long, black hair in a dress on the beach while sometimes, she sees and hears horses pounding the sand. She also has terrible dreams when she sleeps and often hears singing, but is it the wind? Surely it's the wind, right?
When she is joined by a group of three people who also want to document the Ormen's departure, she's happy at first. There's Leo, a parkour expert who appears to be openly hostile towards her; Samara, a kind sound recording expert and lastly, there's Jens, a 50-something guy who befriends her. But there's something secretive going on that those three aren't sharing with Dom and she aims to figure out what it is. In the meantime, the followers on the TikTok project keep growing daily and as a team, they are discovering some really interesting stuff about the research team from the 1970's, but also the ship's whaling days.
As Dom continues to be plagued by strange nightmares and sightings, the others start being affected by the Ormen as well, or are they being possessed by the ghostly woman who sings on the wind near a rock deemed "the mermaid throne" by Jens? Strange songs being carved into the table, diaries from 1901 being discovered under the floor following a dream, and near-death mishaps in the icy waters are just a few of the things causing this collection of people to trust one another less and less as each day goes by. And the few hours of sunlight each day is doing more to drive them all insane than it is to provide some much-needed charge for their equipment. What deadly secrets does the Ormen truly hold and can they tell its story or will it take them all with it to a watery grave deep below?
Let me first say this - I have only read one other book by C.J. Cooke, The Lighthouse Witches, but she is a fantastic writer. I find her books are best enjoyed with a warm beverage and a pair of cozy socks because they exude an aura of ice, salt air, sea life and absolute horror. This book is not your average scary story, although it has its fair share of blood and guts, quite literally at times. I find the horror comes from the trauma one human (or many) can visit upon another and the realization that the lasting damage it causes can reverberate across time.
C.J. Cooke doesn't dance around the ugliness of humanity. It's in your face from beginning to end, but you'll also see self-realization and healing from that trauma. While it's hard to say I "enjoyed" A Haunting in the Arctic due to its tough subject matter, I was compelled to keep reading until the very incredible end, no matter how late it was. Then as I tried to sleep amidst a terrible thunderstorm, I could almost swear I heard the selkie wife singing on the wind. This book is highly, highly recommended. It's freakin' brilliant and will stay with you for a while.
