31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing story, with odd writing style, August 8, 2001
The topic is indeed a fascinating one, and Lee Miller has asked many important probing questions from all sides of this story. She has done a good job of conjuring the excitement and drama of this historical mystery, bolstered by impressive research and a keen perception. However, I must agree with some of the reviewers below that her persistent failure to write in complete sentences makes for choppy reading at times. Perhaps she intended this fragmentary style to heighten the drama - I can think of no other way an editor would allow it. Also, I agree with someone below who said that another map or two would be helpful. She mentions many specific place names, many of which have changed since that time, and it was a little hard to follow the exact whereabouts of certain events, even though I am familiar with the Outer Banks. Be that as it may, the story itself is so compelling that I recommend the book and commend the author for her valuable probing. Above all, Miller makes it clear that there is ample evidence from which we may conclude what really happened to the colonists (and she does a convincing job interpreting every scrap that remains) and that much of it has been suppressed or forgotten for 400 years. Perhaps the Lost Colony is a mystery no more! This fact alone justifies reading this book.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating thesis. Bad writing. You decide., April 1, 2002
Was the lost colony a tragic disaster, or a shrewdly engendered mass murder? Miller has made some fantastic connections to piece together her version of the mystery. It is a fascinating idea, and I found some of her proof and reasoning quite compelling. The use of intertextual first person accounts was also quite helpful.
However, while "Roanoke" had some great ideas, it was so poorly written as to be almost unreadable at times. Sentence fragments float wildly. Ideas are begun and then abandoned only to reappear from nowhere two pages later. The short choppy paragraph structure is highly distracting, and left me constantly feeling unsatisfied. I did manage to finish, but only because I am really interested in the Lost Colony. If you are not, I suggest a more clearly written account.
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29 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Case Closed, December 24, 2002
This review is from: Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony (Paperback)
Most Americans are probably familiar with the bare outlines of the story of Raleigh's colony at Roanoke. Many will, like me, remember history text pictures of the stunned John White staring in awestruck perplexity at that awful word, CROATOAN. Few will, like me, have mothers who explained that the Croatians came for them.
The basic story is familiar. Miller presents us with the entire story, from the Spanish pressure on England that led to privateering, to the court intrigues. We learn about the social and political situation in England, with much interesting detail that helps us understand how these people lived. Lane's dealings with the Native Americans, killing and burning for a wretched silver cup, are sickening. The poor Indians must have felt that unwonted doom had descended on them out of a clear blue sky.
Miller's research is highly impressive. All the pieces slide into place, even the preposterous Welsh Indians. I know nothing about American languages, so I cannot comment authoritatively on her conclusions there, but if this stands up to peer review, it should settle the case. If nothing else, she has convinced me. (Samuel Morison's Oxford History of the American People says the Lumbee Indians believe the blood of Raleigh's colonists runs in their veins. I wonder what Miller says about that.)
The case should be settled, but the melodramatic writing style has caused comment. A writing gimmick, used sparingly, is clever, often repeated becomes distracting, obnoxious, and causes you to wonder about the writer. Her health. Her qi. She can barely build up the steam to write a complete sentence. Fragments. Almost the whole book. She's okay when she's concentrating on scholarly evidence, and oh how she piles on the footnotes! But when she's telling a story, you want to stand by her desk and cheer, Take a deep breath, Lee, push that pen! All the way to the end! You can do it, you can do it! Push that pen! Rah rah rah!
If you can muck your way through all those fragments, you will find a superb story, nailed down with meticulous scholarship. One thought will not leave my mind. The lost colonists who survived must have heard that their countrymen were searching in the region, but as slaves they were unable to meet them. Pity their despair!
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