Roanoke

November 17, 2008
The author of Hearts and Bones
returns with a clunky sea-crossing historical thriller that promises to imagine what may have happened to the lost colony of Roanoke. At the center of this tale is Gabriel North, ordered by the conniving handlers of an aging and cash-starved Queen Elizabeth, who’s just survived an assassination attempt, to travel across the ocean in pursuit of the legendary riches that supposedly abound in the New World. But as much as Sir Walter Ralegh and others see Gabriel as a pawn for their bidding, they aren’t prepared for Gabriel’s eventual alliance with the Secota Queen Naia. Though well researched, the novel suffers from wooden dialogue, is filled with far too many minor characters and fails to deliver a stunning reveal about Roanoke’s fate.

January 1, 2009
Recruited from Cambridge along with his overseer, Rob Mowbray, who, looking back, recounts the sordid truth of their adventures, Gabriel, the son of a butcher, saves Queen Elizabeth Is life. His reward? He issent out to colonialRoanoke with the military in search of treasure. Gabrielis soon captured by the wild countrys beauty as well as the beautiful queen of the Roanokes. The rest of the Englishare brutal towardthe local people, while Gabriel tries to help them as he falls in love with their queen. When the mission ends, all Gabriel can think about once back in England is returning. He does, with a group of settlers, only to find that the mission is doomed from the start.Who sabotaged the colony and why? Lawrence presents a page-turning historical mystery filled with the treacherouscourt politics and intrigue of the time and offers an original view of the mystery that is the lost Roanoke colony.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)