“Haunting...Ominous.” —The New York Times Book Review
A “wonderfully chilling” (Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author) polar gothic about a Victorian explorer in search of his lost shipmate–and redemption–from the Bram Stoker Award–nominated author of All the White Spaces.
William Day should be an acclaimed Arctic explorer. But after a failed expedition, in which his remaining men only survived by eating their dead comrades, he returned in disgrace.
Thirteen years later, his second-in-command, Jesse Stevens, has gone missing in the same frozen 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 becomes an uncanny journey into his past, Day must face up to the things he’s done.
Abandonment. Betrayal. Cannibalism.
Aboard ship, Day must also contend with unwanted passengers: a reporter obsessively digging up the truth about the first expedition, as well as Stevens’s wife, a spirit-medium whose séances both fascinate and frighten. Following a trail of cryptic messages, gaunt bodies, and old bones, their search becomes more and more unnerving. The restless dead are never far behind in this “breathtaking achievement” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
Genre: Horror
A “wonderfully chilling” (Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author) polar gothic about a Victorian explorer in search of his lost shipmate–and redemption–from the Bram Stoker Award–nominated author of All the White Spaces.
William Day should be an acclaimed Arctic explorer. But after a failed expedition, in which his remaining men only survived by eating their dead comrades, he returned in disgrace.
Thirteen years later, his second-in-command, Jesse Stevens, has gone missing in the same frozen 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 becomes an uncanny journey into his past, Day must face up to the things he’s done.
Abandonment. Betrayal. Cannibalism.
Aboard ship, Day must also contend with unwanted passengers: a reporter obsessively digging up the truth about the first expedition, as well as Stevens’s wife, a spirit-medium whose séances both fascinate and frighten. Following a trail of cryptic messages, gaunt bodies, and old bones, their search becomes more and more unnerving. The restless dead are never far behind in this “breathtaking achievement” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
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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