David Grann received accolades for his best-selling Killers of the Flower Moon and follows it with another piece of well-researched non-fiction, The Wager, in which he reconstructs the tale of an expedition that set out from England to the Cape of Horn on a secret mission against Spain. Grann uses diaries and other accounts to tell the tale through characters he makes come alive. The story involves shipwrecks, mutinies, madness, and murder. I found the imperialist and seafaring culture in which the events took place to be fascinating. It was also fascinating to see how order breaks down when individuals and groups react to potential death of the entire community. And it’s all true. Here’s what Kirkus Reviews says:
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