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Plimoth Plantation is a recreation of the Pilgrim's first village in Massachusetts. Every year, from Easter to Thanksgiving, it becomes a living history museum, with "interpreters", portraying the lives of the inhabitants. They dress and speak as the immigran did. Caroline Lewis, niece to Miranda Lewis, writer of American history textbooks for children, is one of the re-enactors. She convinced her overprotective mother to let her leave her California home and work at the plantation for a year between high school and university. Miranda phones Caroline to see how she is doing and Caroline refuses to speak to her, so Miranda packs some research materials in her car (she had a deadline after all) and drives out to the Cape to see what's going on. A group of native americans are picketing the entrance to Plimoth Plantations, since the Pilgrims were never too kind to people who were different from themselves. One sign stands out :Myles Standish is a murderer. Miranda goes inside and discovers tensions among the cast members. That night, Miranda and Caroline attend a party given, where the man who plays Myles Standish, Ray McCarthy, makes himself even more disliked than he had been previously. McCarthy was an ex-Boston cop who had fired a musket near some unruly children that day and was generally known to be a troublemaker. The next day, Caroline, in her cabin, is beginning her day as Mistress Fear Allerton, young wife and mother. In front of her is a pot supposedly containing meat for her to prepare for the main meal of the day. When she opens it, she finds McCarthy's head. Now the fun starts. Miranda, as an historian, tries to trace the clues to prove her niece innocent. The search drives her not only to the history of the Pilgrims and their relationship with the Indians and to King Philip's war, but also to her past as a rebel during the psychedelic period in Berkeley. Wheeler makes the modern day murder parallel the characters of the settlers, and gives Miranda, and us, food for thought. She's written several biographies and history books and her expertise makes the 17th century as vivid as the 21st.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, January 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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