PARADISE OF THE DAMNED

For readers of David Grann and Douglas Preston, a transporting, richly researched account of Sir Walter Raleigh's scramble to find El Dorado, set against the backdrop of Elizabethan England's political intrigues and the rival Spanish conquistadors vying for El Dorado's treasure.

As early as 1530, rumors of El Dorado, the mythical city of gold, beckoned to European colonizers. Whether there was any truth to the story remained to be seen, but the promise of wealth alone was enough to ensnare dozens of would-be heroes and glory-hungry hopefuls. Among them was Sir Walter Raleigh: ambitious courtier, confidant to Queen Elizabeth, and, before long, El Dorado fanatic. Across Raleigh's tenuous rise and fall from prominence, the unwavering siren song of El Dorado hypnotized Raleigh. The glittering promise of its wealth appeared to be the solution to all Raleigh's troubles, from his long imprisonment in the Tower of London to his multitude of cut-throat enemies. Captivating, witty, and lush with historical detail, Keith Thomson's Paradise of the Damned charts Raleigh's quixotic search for El Dorado - as well as the many other doomed voyages that proceeded and accompanied it. Keith Thomson is the author of the bestselling nonfiction book Born to Be Hanged, as well as several novels, including Pirates of Pensacola and the New York Times bestseller Once a Spy. The former Columbia history major also writes nonfiction for the New York Times, Garden & Gun, and the Huffington Post on a range of topics, including national security and piracy. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama.