The Ice Child (Wheeler Large Print Book Series (Cloth))

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Three stories -- one good, one thin but decent, and a third just hack writing in the thriller style. The good part of this novel is about the failed Franklin expedition -- interesting history, well-rendered, good focus on the boy, Gus and the second in command, Crozier. The decent story is of a polar bear, also well-researched and captivating. Tied to these two is the modern day story about the explorer and the journalist. The author creates stereotypes instead of real people. The story of the child is nothing but a tear jerker. The behavior of the half-brother, John, is extreme and unbelievable. And the idea that an intelligent and drop-dead beautiful woman like Catherine would fall for the warped John is absurd. Other than that, it's a decent read.

Rating:
Summary: A pervading sadness envelops this story.
Review: When Jo Harper falls for Doug Marshall, she falls for his obsession as well. Doug Marshall has an overwhelming obsession to find the truth about what happened to an Arctic expedition in 1845. The story jumps back and forth between what actually happened on the expedition, and what is happening in real time. But undertones abound, and with Doug Marshall's obsession comes a sadness so deep I felt it in every page. Doug has a son, whose life is all but ruined because of his father's obsession, and it is his son whom the story eventually focuses on. In bizarre and unexpected twists, Jo Harper and Doug Marshall's son become linked in spirit and in time, and the story becomes a race against life and death as one son's life becomes dependent on another son's recovery from a broken heart.