Blackwood by Gwenda Bond

     I spotted this book on the new arrivals display at the library and checked it out on a whim.  Talk about a serendipitous find! I have always been fascinated by Roanoke Island and what happened to its first lost colony.  Over 400 years ago, the 114 colonists on Roanoke mysteriously disappeared.  In Gwenda Bond's Blackwood it's happened again:  overnight, 114 people currently living on Roanoke disappear without a trace.  There are only two people on the island who might be able to figure out why, and they're both just seventeen.  Phillips Rawlings is the sheriff's delinquent son who happens to be able to hear the voices of the dead.  And then there's Miranda Blackwood, daughter of the town drunk, who is bound to the island in some mysterious way that not even she understands, and whose family carries a curse that dates back to the original colonists.  A curse that might be the key to the disappearances, past and present.
     Miranda's father is murdered, and both Phillips and Miranda are suspected in his death.  But they know that someone else on the island is responsible, the same someone who is trying to bring back the original colonists of Roanoke Island.  Somehow they must find a way to stop him before his dark alchemy affects them all.
     This was a fun read.  Bond's theory of what happened to the first colonists is original and well-researched, with just the right touch of the supernatural and unearthly.  And her two main characters are both engaging and memorable.  I liked this book a lot and look forward to reading her next one.