White River Crossing (2026) by Ian McGuire

 Audiobook Review
White River Crossing (2026)

by Ian McGuire

   I saw White River Crossing, the latest book by English novelist Ian McGuire, had been released and immediately went back and listened to the Audiobook for The North Water, his second book.  I read his last book, The Abstainer, when it was released and recognized McGuire of a writer who had both popular ambition and literary merit, working in the field of historical fiction.   I really enjoyed listening to the Audiobook of The North Water because McGuire is really a novelist of the 19th century British empire, and the backgrounds (and accents) of his characters reflect a diversity that wouldn't necessarily come across to someone READING the book.   The Abstainer was historical fiction but it was set in an urban environment, and in that sense White River Crossing is more of a successor to The North Water than The Abstainer.  Listening to them back-to-back the thematic similarities were apparent. 

  White River Crossing is a land-based version of The North Water, set on a remote trapping outpost of the Hudson's Bay Company (I'm assuming, the name is never used.)  The greedy leader of the company fort hears tell of a source of gold far to the north and sends a secret mission with his brutish second in command, a few other workers from his fort, and a party of Indian guides.   As was the case in The North Water, once the adventurers are away from the last outpost of civilization, all kinds of gruesome hell breaks loose.  McGuire is not interested in softening the edges of 19th century colonialist enterprise, and his characters often act like they've been written as examples of the negative press this period has received from the past half century of historiography.