[disclaimer - I am from the same publisher, Diiarts, as Greta van der Rol, but I read this book as if I had picked it up at a bookstore. If you find this troubling, don't read on.]
Die a Dry Death charts the wreck and subsequent events of the Dutch merchant ship
Batavia on its way to the Dutch East Indies in 1629. I for one had no idea of such a vast tragedy ensuing after one of the survivors took command of the refugees and started murdering them systematically.
The book has a wide cast of characters, but I would like to pull out two that have been crafted with extraordinary clarity and skill: a lady of high ranking, Lucretia van der Mijlen, who has to walk the tightrope between life and death, and Jeronimus Cornelisz, the homicidal employee of the Company, who slips into the dark side when he gains control of the islands on which the refugees live.
This could be a book of numbing detail and side stories aplenty, but it isn't. Greta van der Rol has done an outstanding job keeping the stories apace, and tightly reined in so as to keep the central story going. As you read this book, you'll see how you get attracted to it and want to keep reading as you hope for the best for the poor souls on the desolate islands... and yet you know it is not necessarily going to go that way.
I recommend this book to any historical fiction fan, and to all friends of books based on real life and given an extra dimension through fiction.
See it at
http://amzn.to/bR6CVt