National Book Award-winning author Andrea Barrett once again demonstrates her mastery of historical detail in this latest novel. Her evocative descriptions of the ice, tundra and 19th-century Arctic voyages are effectively tied to a great story: the tale of a Philadelphia naturalist not-coincidentally named Erasmus Darwin Wells who sets out on a foolhardy mission to the Canadian Arctic in search of the lost Franklin Expedition. With maps and illustrations, this could be a memoir instead of a gripping work of historical imagination.  (ARC40, $14.95)