Following the success of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, acclaimed author and journalist David Grann is back with a tale of shipwreck, mutiny and murder with his new book, THE WAGER. The story follows a ramshackle British vessel as it pursues a Spanish warship that had been believed to contain unfathomable treasure. Along the way, The Wager ventures into The Drake Passage – a body of water rife with treacherous waves, violent winds and ultimately a diminished survival rate. As expected, the ship does not make it through unscathed and the crew finds themselves washed up on the shores of an island off the coast of Brazil. Already emaciated from sea travel, the group must struggle to survive until a plan of escape can be formulated. But who exactly is in charge here?

Before picking this up, it had been a while since I had sat down with a truly horrifying seafaring story. While most of my experience has been contained to doomed Arctic expeditions, this wasn’t far off in terms of providing panic-inducing nightmare fuel. The graphic descriptions of the effects of scurvy alone are enough to make me want to take a break from these stories yet again, to be honest. I had almost forgotten just how horrific they were in Alfred Lancing’s ENDURANCE. That said, the sheer physical suffering the ship’s inhabitants went through on their way to the island as well as the mental repercussions of being stranded are the book’s backbone and without it, you do not have the drama and backstabbing that eventually boils to the surface, which of course lend themselves well to narrative nonfiction, David Grann’s bread and butter.

The story wouldn’t be half as interesting without the uniquely human concept of “hope”. There’s no story to be had here if those who survived the journey and the wreckage did not believe that they would one day make it back to England. Unfortunately, there are other uniquely human traits here such as jealousy and distrust that had caused several setbacks for the crew as well as pushing back a potential saving grace mid-way through the story. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I still could not believe they could have been so stupid to have looked a gift-horse in the mouth with such contempt and ignorance.

THE WAGER is a deeply captivating read that at times had me on the edge of my seat. It definitely passes the “one more chapter” test when reading beyond your bedtime. I read this one on my Kindle, but I do wish I had a physical copy if only to quickly switch back and forth between the story and the maps that Grann included to give the reader a sense of place and time. I have no doubt that this one will easily find its way on my year-end “best of” list for 2024.