Tobey Pearl had applied incredibly thorough research skills to the extraordinary story of three white men tried for the murder of. Nipmuc man in Plymouth Colony in 1638. Her book conveys the social complexity of colonial American societies, in which whites, Native Americans, and Blacks came into daily contact with one another, trying to simultaneously to hold together their fragile societies *and* live up to their ideals. Often their principles and the reality of the hardscrabble colonial New England life conflicted and colonial leaders relied on the law and juries to shore up the social foundations. When Arthur Peach, an indentured man escaping servitude with three others, brutally murdered Penowanyanquis in the forest, the Nipmuc man miraculously survived long enough to identify his killers. Peach and his accomplices were quickly apprehended, all but one, and the case quickly proceeded to trial. Pearl recounts all the forces at play on this incident, vividly bringing to life the numerous English colonial leaders—Myles Standish, Roger Williams, and John Winslow included—as well as the rivalries and alliances among the Nipmuc, Wampanoag, Narragansett, and other First Peoples. The result is a rich and revealing story.