This book, as the name suggests, is a history of horror fiction i.e. horror in the written form; short stories, novellas, novels etc. It starts from the first gothic horror novel which was published in 1764, The Castle of Otranto (which I have read and written about here) and ends with the horror of modern times which is dominated by one author, Stephen King. Over the course of seven chapters, each written by an expert, the book traces the evolution of horror over the past 250 years.

The disappearance of the 1845 Franklin expedition, with two ships, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, to find the Northwest Passage remained a mystery for more than 150 years. What happened to those ships? Did anyone survive? Could the wrecks ever be found? These questions, along with hundreds others, remained unanswered until finally in 2014, the first breakthrough came. In an expedition led by Parks Canada, Inuit communities and other researchers, the wreck of HMS Erebus was found. Two years later, in 2016, the wreck of HMS Terror was found. This book traces the history of the all the expeditions that were undertaken to find what happened to the two ships from the first one after the disappearance till the one in 2016. Featuring a diverse set of characters, officials with government support, arm chair researchers, everyday people with an intense interest in the Franklin expedition, Inuit communities and military, Ice Ghosts reads like an adventure novel.