("Blood and Ice" by Robert Masello, Bantam Books, 495 pages, $25).

In "Blood and Ice," science fiction and supernatural writing combines a historical adventure from the Crimean War, fought by the British in the 19th century, with a modern-day scientific exploration near the South Pole.

Michael Wilde, a noted photojournalist, is on assignment for a national magazine to write about the remote polar base.

Wilde is recovering from the unexpected, tragic death of his woman and needs the assignment to begin his life again. The base, at Point Adelie, can be reached only by air in a short season of reasonable (by Antarctic standards) weather. Indeed, the flight there is badly disrupted and nearly fatal.

A startling discovery is made at the camp when two frozen bodies are found underwater, deep in the Antarctic ice. When they are brought to the surface, the man and woman are found chained together and in ancient clothing. Apparently they were thrown off a sailing ship that floundered in the dangerous waters.

It turns out that the dead were one of Florence Nightingale's nurses and a British officer of the famous Light Brigade of the Crimean War. The mystery of how they came to their icy graves is soon overshadowed by the disappearance of their bodies from the scientific camp. They rode away on a dog sled.

What?! They came to life? Well, that's the incredible part of this strange but entrancing story. Author Robert Masello gives us a slice of life from the 19th century along with new cutting edge science and a supernatural ancient blood curse that lasts through the centuries. Most interesting.

Francis Moul, Ph.D., is an environmental historian.