Toward the Midnight Sun
Like all romantic time periods, the Klondike Gold Rush didn’t last very long. Toward the Midnight Sun explores one year of the three-year stampede through the eyes of Anna Denton and Will Leary. Anna is going to Dawson City to meet her soon-to-be husband, the King of the Klondike, Henry Bradwell. Her escorts are two ne’er-do-wells in his employ. Once on the steamer from Seattle with her escorts, she meets Will Leary and his brother-from-another-mother, Silas Oliver. When Anna’s escorts prove unworthy in Skagway, Will and Silas accompany her over the treacherous Chilkoot Pass to Dawson. But her fiancé is not the kind philanthropist she’d hoped. Hardened by years in the Klondike, Bradwell is petty and jealous, and doesn’t like Anna’s familiarity with her travelling companions. Bradwell’s temper is now the peril the travelers must manage.
For me, the best parts of this book are the Chilkoot Trail. The tonnage of supplies, the harsh conditions, and the human tenacity staggers the mind. Dempsey renders the stampeders, the tent towns, and Dawson City in crystal-clear detail. The yearning of Anna and Will feels inevitable and natural, and while I rooted for them to come together, the actual page time feels rushed and brief. The main conflict ratchets up well, the stakes (pun intended) progress fast after the group arrives in Dawson.
The resolution, however, falters because the supporting characters are not as well-drawn. Perhaps it is because the villain, Bradwell, is so very evil that he lacks depth. The ending is where we find the tropes of frontier stories: the Bad Guy Boss, the Noble Savage, and the Soul Who Is Too Good To Live. Anyone who enjoys frontier books, Gold Rush stories, or harsh weather novels will fall in love with Toward the Midnight Sun.
