The Wager

 The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann, 352 pages.

In 1740 The Wager left England with a fleet of other British warships to hunt Spanish treasure vessels in the South Seas. Two years later a tattered boat packed with 30 dying men washed up on the coast of Brazil. The tales the shipwrecked sailors told of their troubles entranced people for miles around, and the men were hailed as heroes. But then, six months later, another ramshackle boat carrying only a few men washed up off the coast of Chile with a grave accusation, the first group of men were mutineers and should be hung for their crimes. 

Grann covers the whole story, from the building of the ship to the court martial that would decide every survivor's fate, with both astounding historical detail and driving narrative force. I felt on the edge of my seat for most of the story, which is astounding for a nonfiction account of an event that happened nearly 300 years ago. Even more astounding is that he managed to pull turning real events into a thrilling story with very little speculation, relying heavily on the many first-hand accounts the survivors wrote after they got back in an attempt to shift the narrative in their favor. I was really impressed by this book, and am definitely planning on picking up more by the author.