A spellbinding, beautifully written novel that moves between contemporary times and one of the most fascinating and disturbing periods in American history - the Salem witch trials.Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of her grandmother's abandoned home near Salem, she can't refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key secreted within a 17th-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare colonial artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge of herbs and other stranger things.
As the pieces of Deliverance's harrowing story begin to fall into place, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials and begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem's dark past then she could have ever imagined.
Written with astonishing conviction and grace, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane travels seamlessly between the trials in the 1690s and a modern woman's story of mystery, intrigue, and revelation.
I had a hard time putting this book down once I started it. I moved a little slower through the chapters on the 1600s at first but it didn't take me long to pick up on the old English-speak and move through them a little easier.
It made it all that much more interesting when I learned that the author, Katherine Howe, is a descendant of a couple of the women involved in the trials - one who survived and one who didn't.
The story is one that pulls you right in, wanting to find out where things lead - and there are twists and turns along the way to keep you interested. The ending is one you don't expect.
All in all, a great read and I'm looking forward to finding other works from this author.
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