David McGrogan's Reviews > Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny

This is a compelling read, which grabs you from the first sentence and doesn't let go until the last. It also beautifully communicates the sense of time and place upon which great narrative history has to be based. Ultimately, though, one wonders what we are to make of the fate of the Batavia. What does Dash give us, beyond a very lurid and horrible tale? He does not wish to simply let the facts speak for themselves, because he does make some effort at the end of the book to tie these events to wider narratives, but his efforts to do so are unsatisfactory. This is what prevents me awarding the book 5 stars.