Mark Synnott admits in the introduction to his new book that “it is out in the high and wild places in this world that I’ve always felt the closest to whoever it is that I really am.” While not exactly poetry, it’s a good summary of the best parts of “Into the Ice,” Synnott’s third work of long-form nonfiction. Part travelogue, part historical mystery and part memoir, “Into the Ice” will appeal to fans of extreme adventure stories, nearly all of whom will never sail a boat through the Northwest Passage.

The travelogue moments of the book are the best-written, as Synnott and his crew sail his 47-foot boat Polar Sun east to west through the passage, from Nuuk, Greenland, to Nome, Alaska. The 6,736-mile journey takes 112 days, which provides plenty of time for readers to learn the story of British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin and the 128 men he led on an expedition to discover the passage in the mid-19th century. The mystery of what happened to Franklin and all his men has never been entirely solved, though the wrecks of both his ships were discovered earlier this century.

Synnott doesn’t solve the mystery, but he does dive deep into the historical record, and that’s where the book loses some momentum. Synnott references the work of various historians and takes us back nearly two centuries to recount Franklin’s career and what is known about his third attempt to map the Northwest Passage from 1845 to 1847.

The tale is more compelling when Synnott is engaging with living Franklin-ologists like Canadian Tom Gross, who has been searching for Franklin’s tomb and collecting evidence of what happened for decades.

National Geographic funded Synnott’s voyage, and the stunning scenery and drama on the high seas is available to view on Disney+ as “Explorer: Lost in the Arctic.” If you’re not a subscriber, the best parts of the book let readers travel there in their mind. — Rob Merrill, Associated Press

Think of “A Better Ending” as a true-crime book that becomes a memoir.

James Whitfield Thomson’s book is subtitled “A Brother’s Twenty-Year Quest to Uncover the Truth About His Sister’s Death.” It was ruled a death by suicide in 1974, a conclusion that never sat right with James and other family members.

But it wasn’t until years later, when James hired a private detective, that he stumbled upon troubling details he’d never known (there was a child present at the time of her death, evidence was mishandled or lost). They make James wonder if Eileen’s husband, Vic, had something to do with her death and if Vic’s colleagues on the police force helped cover that up.

There are aspects of James’ story that could put a reader off. The thing is, Thomson probably registered your objections before you did. His writing is so guileless and self- critical that “A Better Ending” feels like reading the words of someone you know. His calm, questioning prose suits the story, which is surprisingly easy to relate to, despite its shocking elements: A brother wants to know more about his loved one’s death and, 50 years on, wonders if he could have done anything to prevent it.

Ultimately, “A Better Ending” is much more about the “brother” of the subtitle than the “sister.” It’s a story of obsession that is fueled by guilt but shifts to forgiveness when the truth of something he was told early on finally registers for Thomson: The evidence no longer exists for his former brother-in-law to be convicted of a crime, even if Vic did have something to do with Eileen’s death, which he denies.

It’s clear that, at some points in the book, that is what Thomson wants. But, even if his sister remains a frustrating enigma in “A Better Ending,” Thomson has figured out enough about his own motives and about his brother-in-law to provide himself a better ending. — Chris Hewitt, Minnesota Star Tribune