A Killing in Plymouth Colony

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Summary: *SETTLERS DEAL WITH A KILLING & BREACH OF TRUST*
Review: Carol Otis Hurst and Rebecca Otis combined their talents to write this historical novel set in the Plymouth Colony of Massachusetts. In 1630 John Bradford was eleven, and finding it tough to be the son of the colony's high-minded governor, William Bradford. When John's mother died at his birth, he was left with surrogate parents in Holland for the 1st eight years of his life. The intervening years would inevitably make a reunion difficult and John feels almost totally estranged from his father.

He empathizes with John Billington who is often drunk and NOT an upright citizen. Both are frequently reprimanded by the governor. Happily, there is a friend: Sam Eaton contributes some normality to his life. Sam's five-year-old sister is traumatized when a member of the colony is killed. The book's cover picture shows the tormented Rachel sitting in a tree, hidden from the black-hatted colonists below who are planning to hunt down the murderer, someone trusted by Rachel.

The book brings into focus the *ordinariness* of daily life; however, their struggles were not play-acting like "survivors" on television. The father-son conflict is not entirely resolved in the story; "relationships" were not coddled in the harsh physical and social/emotional climate of those times!

In an "afterword" information is given about some of the book's characters who were actually colonists. REVIEWER mcHAIKU would be interested to learn if readers are primarily boys but recommends this book to all ages, and readers well beyond Massachusetts.