The Witch Of Manga Reva

In the tradition of his thrilling Wake of the Red Witch, Garland Roark now casts another exciting romance of South Sea adventure and tropical passion. The Witch of Manga Reva is a tale of intrigue and superstition, and of two treacherous men, pitted against the other in a contest for forbidden wealth. Why had Jason Hind, captain of a schooner, abandoned a lucrative career to speculate in pearling? What was the uncanny power that Honore Laval, the "mad priest" of Manga Reva, held over the superstitious natives? And as for the spectral figure who appeared, demanding tribute from the people of the village--was she merely a clever adventuress or indeed a witch? Much of The Witch of Manga Reva is based on historical fact--Honore Laval was real, and he actually clung to power of a mad sort on the lush, remote island of Manga Reva. He built a cathedral--also a vital element of Roark's novel--on the island, at a cost of 10,000 lives, before he was exiled by the French late in the 19th century.