The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann is a harrowing true story of an English ship in the 1700s that is masterfully told. The story of the ship The Wager is interesting, but the way Grann moves events around adds suspense to the story. If the story were written straight it would be just okay. The way Grann writes it he foreshadows the events that are in the title a shipwreck, a mutiny, and a murder, and it is up for you the reader to figure out which character is going to do the mutiny and the murder. The characters are laid out like an Agatha Christie mystery where we learn about their background, what drives them, and how they came to the ship. Just like a good mystery, I was wrong about who the murderer and the mutineer were. The mystery is one aspect of the book the other is sailing and surviving the elements and the diseases. The diseases are the true killer of the story that wipes out half the ship before the shipwreck even happens. The story is told in 3rd person with lots of journal entries to back up the facts. The story follows many different people but Grann does a good job of making us know the survivors of the shipwreck and being sad of the people that I wanted to survive but died in the shipwreck. David Grann is known for writing well-researched nonfiction stories Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z. This is the first book I have read by him I’m not a big reader of nonfiction, and tend to read 1 or 2 a year. Two things made me read this book. It has been in many Best of 2023 book lists and this is the next collaboration from Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio to adapt for a film. The Wager was published on April 18, 2023, by Doubleday.

Plot Summary: In the 1700s Britain sent a fleet of ships to stop and steal from Spain, operating a lot of provinces in what would become South America, and finding a lot of silver and gold that was funding Spain’s war effort. The Wager is one of those ships, what is interesting is the Wager is not originally a warship but has been recommissioned to become one. We meet the gunner for the wager who is the hardest worker on the ship and is the guy you want on your side in battle, Byron a 16-year-old in training to be an officer one day, and Cheap a not-yet captain of the Wager but will soon be due to circumstances. This group will be at the heart of the murder and mutiny story. In a boat of 500 souls only a handful make it back who will survive, and who will be first to tell their side of the story the mutineer or the murderer?

What I Learned: I already knew that Vitamin C and loss of Collagen were a factor in the disease scurvy, but hearing the horror stories of a boat full of people who don’t know how to stop it will be imprinted in my brain just how bad the deficiency can get. I did not know that typhus the disease came from lice and how horrible that is. I learned that the boat’s speed measurement knots came from counting knots, which makes sense but reading about how they did it was interesting. In the 1700’s they knew how latitude worked but could not figure out longitude and they had a big prize for the person that could figure out the calculation that Newton could not figure out. Winter in parts of South America is not paradise, I knew of the snow-capped Andes mountains in Chile but not the snowy weather from the ocean below it. How the society in the 1700s was both polite and vicious all at the same time.

What I Liked: How the story was told made the story. The pace of the story is great thanks to the way Grann told it. Learning all the cool things about ships and how they worked. Learning the horrors of ships in the 1700s, will not go there in a time machine or at least will stay on land. How a black former slave was treated on the ship, which was surprisingly well. I learned a ton about how cannon fire worked on the ships. My favorite real-life person was Byron, I liked his conscience and moral code. The story of Byron and the lost dog crushed me. The painting at the end showing the ships and some of the events of the shipwreck of The Wager.

What I Disliked: I wanted more from the court case at the end, we were given the facts but I guess I wanted more facts on why it went down like it did. I kind of wanted to from my own opinion why it was done like that and I felt there just wasn’t enough.

Recommendations: This story has a lot of meat to it and I think it will make a great film adaptation. I always like to read the books first before I see the movie. I recommend this book and do believe it is one of the Top books of 2023 and will make my top five list of best books written in 2023. my only trigger warning is that scurvy disease in particular is in detail what it does to the pretty horrific body.

Rating: I Rated The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann 5 out of 5 stars. Reviewing this novel has made me want to read Killers of the Flower Moon before I see the movie.