One hundred English settlers erected a new fort called Jamestown in the honour of King James I in 1607. They experienced wild and turbulent conditions such as the native population attacking them and an English Catholic agent codenamed Realm, who sided with Spain after the failed Gunpowder plot against the King.

Christian Hardy might escape from the spymaster, Robert Cecil, who wanted him dead. He boarded the ship to Jamestown at the command of Henry, the Prince of Wales to preserve the settlement. The King might wish the settlers fail! Most settlers lost their lives through diseases, harsh winter conditions and famines.

The president of Virginia Company, John Ratcliffe and Captain John Smith struggled for the power to control the fort. Smith wanted the company to explore more settlements and sow the seeds in the fields. However, the bloodshed continued.

This novel sounds like Roanoke the lost colony! The settler felt that they lived in Hell. I am glad to read the historical note at the end of this novel for which I thank James Jackson!

Caesar13

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to review

Premise of the plot was promising but the execution was poor. Story jumped all over the place and was hard to follow. Often it jumped paragraph to paragraph making it very hard to follow. Plot devices were also a little hard to swallow. It seems native Americans spoke fluent English when the colonists first arrived in Virginia. Needless to say I was disappointed in the novel and cannot in good conscience recommend it.

Cradle by James Jackson

It is 1608 and England’s first colony in the Americas is dying a little more every day. Jamestown in Virginia might be named after James I but the king has no interest in it thriving – quite the contrary. Both James and Philip, the King of Spain, view Jamestown as a threat to their hard-won peace. It’s in the interests of both that it should fail and they each have agents willing to travel all of those miles to ensure its calamitous failure. But King James’s son Henry has other plans. He is determined that Jamestown should survive, that the power of England and the influence of Protestantism should spread and prosper to the New World. What Henry needs is a man on the ground to ensure Jamestown’s continued existence – he sends Christian Hardy, a spy so lethal and dangerous that not even King James and his spymaster Robert Cecil, Hardy’s employer, can bare him to live another day.

We were first introduced to Christian Hardy in Treason, a novel that told the tale of the Gunpowder Plot and the efforts of Hardy to prevent it and of Realm, the monstrous and demonic Spanish spy, to bring it about. Both Hardy and Realm return in Cradle, their enmity as livid as ever, and they carry their blood feud to Jamestown and the Americas.

But while Hardy and Realm continue their fight, Jamestown is faced by other threats – most especially the local warring tribes of native Americans. But there is also disease and famine to face, as well as loneliness and despair. It’s all very grim indeed and, at times, it is very bloody and gruesome.

The story of Cradle has a habit of jumping forward, giving it a rather disjointed feel (for instance, a man is languishing in prison and in the next chapter he’s been restored to his liberty). This is supported by its constant movement between the settlement and the surrounding native American villages. I found the style hard to settle down into but my main issue with the novel is with its incessant violence and conflict. I realise that this is the purpose of the novel but we jump from one conflict to another, one death to another, while characters are given little time to develop. Which is a pity because I think, given the chance, I would rather like Christian Hardy.

There’s something too despicable about Realm, though, and this horror is backed up by the gruesome cruelty of the tribes. In some chapters we’re given a positive image of the local people, particularly through their women, but this is counteracted by the portrayal of predominantly cruel behaviour. I didn’t enjoy this. Some of them are turned into caricature baddies. Not that the men in Jamestown are much better. It’s all a bit unpleasant. Which is a shame, because the setting of the novel is wonderfully described. I love the frontier feel of the novel, the dangerous isolation of the settlement and the vulnerability of its inhabitants. There is almost a siege-feel to much of the novel, which can be very exciting to read.

It’s possible that I have issues with Cradle because its focus is more on violence and conflict than on character and history. It didn’t feel sufficiently set in its time for me. However, it’s certainly exciting and tense and so, if you like an action-packed historical thriller then this might well be for you.

Other review
Treason

I received a free electronic copy of this historical based on fact novel from Netgalley, James Jackson, and Bonnier Zaffre in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me.

The colonization of Jamestown, Virginia in May 1607 was due to the efforts of Prince Henry, son of England's King James, and a conglomeration of English investors known as the Virginia Company of London. King James openly opposed this effort of colonization, fearing it would cause another war with Spain, who already had colonies on the southeastern coast of America. the Establishment of Jamestown occurred about 20 years after the discovery that the Lost Colony, Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh's effort to establish an outpost on Roanoke Island, North Carolina had completely disappeared. (See Wikipedia "The Croatoan Project" for archeological information on this band of settlers uncovered by Hurricane Emily in 1993).

Cradle follows true the problems of the Jamestown settlers as written up by historians at the time. Problems with weather, misunderstandings with the native population and the 'lost' third mission of supply ships were exasperated by infighting in England between the factions of King James and the Virginia Company of London representatives. Despite the intention of the surviving 60 settlers to abandon Jamestown in spring of 1610, the three arriving supply ships of Lord Delaware saved the day. Colonization of Virginia was able to recover and become self supporting over then next several years. Jamestown was eventually again abandoned, as the colonists moved inland and established themselves as self sufficient, finally making peace with the native Americans in 1614. This is an excellent book which brings to life the spirit of the colonists and native Americans in this time of turmoil and discovery.

One of the few books that I have ever not finished. The first chapter was so violent, visceral and disturbing that I was unable to continue.