A remarkable book . . . from an anthropologist of Native American descent who is also an extraordinarily gifted writer. What Lee Miller offers here is an exciting and original look at a great historical mystery, and her conclusions are as convincing as her research is thorough. The intellectual breadth and literary elegance of this book is perhaps only matched by the novel solution that her sensitivity to her subject and her anthropological acumen allow her to venture. In fact, Roanokeis deeply compelling, so much so that it is surely destined to claim a permanent place in the American colonial record.

An interesting, well-told tale. Recommended.

[Roanoke]is a factual mystery story. Actually, it is three mysteries in one, all centered on the famous lost colony Roanoke, "America’s oldest mystery," as the author calls it. It is a scholarly romp, a historical who-done-it--or more accurately, a who-done-what. It’s full of glamour and violence: torture, wars, a few crowned heads and even more beheadings, bejeweled ladies and swashbuckling men, savages both noble and treacherous, intrigue, treason, storms at sea, shipwreck. . . . But lest this sound like history-by-tabloid, ethnohistorian Lee Miller has produced a splendidly documented narrative with footnotes that fairly bristle with future faculty quarrels. . . . Lee Miller has navigated nimbly across the map, across the centuries, and across scholarly disciplines. . . . The ruckus she will certainly create should be almost as much fun as the book itself.

Lee Miller offers enlivening insight and astounding detail as she resurrects a 400-year-old American mystery. Her carefully navigated journey through the twisted inner workings of Elizabeth's court and American Indian politics uncovered many answers spiced with sabotage, jealousy and conspiracy. This fresh take on a classic mystery is a reminder that what we accept as history might instead be what Miller calls "a myth created to explain glaring inconsistencies, to smooth out the rough edges of unanswered questions."

Miller goes back to the original evidence, casting new light on the previously inexplicable puzzles of the Roanoke data, leading us into a world of intrigue and espionage, court treachery, sabotage and American Indian politics and power. The London Times proclaimed Roanoke "as much a page-turner as any Boys' Ownadventure story." Britain's Jack the Ripper Club endorsed it as a "truly great story." "The book is a great read. If you like historical mysteries, this is a superb book you won't put down," club officials said.

A remarkable and gripping work of historical detection, spinning a tale of intrigue, sabotage and murder. . . . brilliant, mesmirizing . . . Roanokeis a spellbinding treat for history buffs and lovers of stranger-than-fiction real-life mysteries.

At first we thought it was an amazing book, but having finished it, we had to reconsider. It's actually closer to genius. It's hard to imagine being smart enough to understand Elizabethan politics, European balances of power of that era, or being able to re-interpret Native American languages centuries after they have departed the scene, much less to correlate ancient maps with mineral deposits and so forth. [Miller] also does a fine job of breathing life into the nations, which were here when the English arrived. A mind this fertile, nimble, and energetic is destined, we should think, for greatness.

Miller has accomplished nothing less than cracking a 400-year-old missing persons case involving the wholesale disappearance of 115 men, women and children. Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colonyis acute and original scholarship that reads like sensational fiction. Miller, employing intense re-evaluation of primary sources, finds evidence of sabotage and conspiracy that extends to the highest levels of the English court. She accounts for the original situation of the colonists and identifies with precision their destiny. There is exposed at once supreme tragedy and stark villainy in these pages.

Written in the form of a detective story, which doubles back and forth across the decades and across the ocean, rather than as a traditional historical narrative, Roanokecontains some intriguing insights.

No matter how well you know the story of the colonists who vanished without a trace, Miller offers a whirlwind adventure worthy of an epic miniseries.

Miller offers a dramatically told solution based on the evidence left behind and shows the reasons--largely political--the colonists were probably destined to fail even before they left England.

Miller [leads] the reader along a labyrinthine narrative trail of suspicion, speculation, sleuthing, and detection.

Although Roanokeis thoroughly scholarly . . . it reads like a fast-paced mystery.

Miller lays out the case so clearly, so systematically, and, ultimately, so persuasively that one is inclined to wonder how the story behind the failure of England’s first attempt at a permanent colony in the new world could have remained hidden for over 400 years.