The Whisper on the Night Wind

The True History of a Wilderness Legend

By: Adam Shoalts

Narrated by: Adam Shoalts

Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Spellbinding adventure from Canada's most beloved modern-day explorer.

Traverspine is not a place you will find on most maps. A century ago, it stood near the foothills of the remote Mealy Mountains in central Labrador. Today it is an abandoned ghost town, almost all trace of it swallowed up by dark spruce woods that cloak millions of acres.

In the early 1900s, this isolated little settlement was the scene of an extraordinary haunting by large creatures none could identify. Strange tracks were found in the woods. Unearthly cries were heard in the night. Sled dogs went missing. Children reported being stalked by a terrifying grinning animal. Families slept with cabin doors barred and axes and guns at their bedsides.

Tales of things that "go bump in the night" are part of the folklore of the wilderness, told and retold around countless campfires down through the ages. Most are easily dismissed by skeptics. But what happened at Traverspine a hundred years ago was different. The eye-witness accounts were detailed, and those who reported them included no less than three medical doctors and a wildlife biologist.

Something really did emerge from the wilderness to haunt the little settlement of Traverspine. Adam Shoalts, decorated modern-day explorer and an expert on wilderness folklore, picks up the trail from a century ago and sets off into the Labrador wild to investigate the tale. It is a spine-tingling adventure, straight from a land steeped in legends and lore, where Vikings wandered a thousand years ago and wolves and bears still roam free.

In delving into the dark corners of Canada's wild, The Whisper on the Night Wind combines folklore, history, and adventure into a fascinating saga of exploration.

©2021 Adam Shoalts (P)2021 Allen Lane

Critic reviews

“It is a spooky read, and after finishing it you might want to take a few days off before heading back into the wilderness . . . a page turner for sure.” (Kevin Callan, Explore Magazine)

“The place they end up is so isolated and untravelled that it could give the yips to even the most seasoned explorer. Shoalts is precise in his descriptions of setting and his writing is filled with . . . a clever, intentional use of language that heightens tension and lets a creepiness seep into the narrative.” (Quill and Quire)

Excellent Book!

Another excellent book from Adam Shoalts. I will recommend it to all my earth-loving, adventurous friends.

True Adventure

This book caught and held my interest, not only for the thrills in the story, but for all the bits and pieces of research and history brought together to solve the puzzle. Loved it!

Creepy

I never would have thought that a narrative of a real life exploration could be creepy but this one really is! perfect for Halloween season!

Labrador

The Whisper on the Night Wind concerns the legend of a mysterious creature in Labrador. Many places have mystery creatures such as Sasquatch or Loch Ness and Labrador has its own. Shoalts uses it as a narrative thread to explore Labrador, and does arrive at a plausible explanation. It's also a travelogue and outdoor journey, first it takes 20+ hours to get there along a dirt road from Quebec. The largest settlement is North West River / Goose Bay and just east of there, south of Melville Bay, are the Mealy Mountains. Within the past 5 years they were made into a new National Park. The park has no roads or official trails and is exceptionally hard going with dense black spruce forests and barren rock mountains. It's been called the largest protected area in eastern North America. Labrador was one of the last areas to be settled by humans, being so far away from the Bering Strait, locked up by glaciers, and generally bypassed by Europeans for better climes south. To this day there are very few people. The Mealy Mountains are adjacent to the largest human settlement in the entire territory but hardly anyone goes there. The mystery of the creature keeps the narrative taught and pages turning while you learn about this fascinating place.

I am wary of 1-star reviewers and look how they reviewed other books because it's often just as badly. If you have any interest in Labrador this is a great gateway when followed with Google Maps. I read this book a while ago and it has stuck with me.

Mysteriously exciting

I so very much enjoyed your book and your movie. Like minded in your endeavors. The book took me back to my childhood thoughts and fears. However my adulthood knows better the mysteries in the dark.
I’ll be a faithful fan!!!

good book, narration needs work

Its a pretty straightforwad account of a cool journey into wild Canada, complete with historical anecdotes and the author's hypothesis on what really happened to the inhabitants on the town. Despite (or maybe because of) some very questionable decisions made by the adventurer, I enjoyed listening to the book, but it took effort with the narrator. The reader routinely pauses in the middle of sentences and places inflections where they don't make sense. The dialogue in the book doesn't sound like dialogue at all. It would seem like the author meant for some parts to be slightly humorous or playful, but it was hard to tell from the narration. It's a bit like listening to one of those robot narrators.

Kudos to Adam

Kudos to Adam for unraveling a decades long mystery, turning it into a fine yarn. A lot of research went into the making of this book.

Geography was the only believable part

Tortuously fabricated dialogue, absurd placement of a revelation about the mystery, and what is, at it's core, a story of a guy's canoe trip.

I am not certain the sidekick Zack actually exists, and isn't just a conversational mirror.

And the mystery? I'm going to spoil it right here. I wouldn't, but the quality of the book demands I save others the strain of surviving to the end. Wolverines, and moose that wandered into an area they didn't traditionally occupy. Two critters, mixed up sightings.

This book should’ve been billed as a travel log quote we put up the tent we slept weird noises we took down the tent”

This is about the worst represented book I have ever read if you like travel logs and like to read about somebody’s pros of how the wind feels in the trees look and how the slide noises bother him then this is the book for you it is totally misrepresented by audible and I would not have paid for it had I not thought it might have something interesting in it it was bland an interesting not well performed. And after a long trip he goes home and has a cup of green tea what a wuss