One of the most haunting mysteries in American history — The Lost Colony of Roanoke — comes roaring back to life in White Seed, with a compelling cast of characters, among them:

Maggie Hagger, indentured Irish serving girl, a victim of rape and intimidation,
Manteo, Croatoan interpreter for the English, inhabitant of two worlds, belonging to neither,
John White, ineffective Governor, painter, dreamer, father and grandfather,
Captain Stafford, brave and disciplined, but cruel soldier, and
Powhatan, shrewd Tidewater warlord who wages a stealthy war against the colonists.

From Publishers Weekly: This above-average historical hews closely to the record of Sir Walter Raleigh’s second doomed attempt to plant the British flag in Virginia, but embroiders the who, what, when with enough… embellishment to create a riveting story. The focus is 17-year-old “wench” Maggie Hagger, whose passage on Raleigh’s ship was paid by colony Governor Sir John White so she can serve his pregnant daughter.

The ship’s stormy passage to the New World — during which widower White falls for Maggie, who is meanwhile evading unwanted advances from a scalawag — establishes the many well-wrought characters, some noble (particularly real-life Native Manteo), others evil.

The depiction of the colony’s physical and moral disintegration between 1587 and 1590 — as drunken, cannibalistic soldiers mutiny and brutalize the settlers they were meant to protect, and as colonists confront disease, starvation and madness — evokes a harrowing sense of human fallibility. Readers with more than a nodding familiarity with American colonial history will experience a … déjà vu, but others less hip to what happened in late-16th century times will find this saga, which starts slowly but soon reaches page-turner velocity, to be both a dandy diversion and an entertaining education.