The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Deliverance and her daughter Mercy, in particular, made me get a bit sniffly since, of course, it being the Salem Witch trials, Deliverance gets hanged. Throughout the book we flash back to Deliverance Dane and her daughter and her daughter’s daughter and this was really excellent – I wanted more of it! The sections from the past felt much more immediate and real than the bits with Connie doing her researching and having her rather unbelievable fling with Sam. I thought the book telegraphed punches a bit, with Connie failing to pick up clues that even I caught, even though she was supposed to be doing a dissertation on colonial America and I, um, took American history when I was in high school. I was not in love with the Boston accent approximations – I know these things are difficult to do, so I give her mostly a break on that.

While living at the house, Connie finds a little key inside a Bible, and a name, Deliverance Dane and this leads to all kinds of mad research into the Salem witch trials.Īlthough I enjoyed The Physick Book a lot, there were some smallish things that I thought could have been improved. Poor Connie has just got through with her qualifying exams – sounds like a nightmare, that lot, I don’t think I was sufficiently sympathetic to my dear friend tim when she was having quals (sorry tim!) – and her scatty New Age mother demands she go fix up her (Connie’s) late grandmother’s old house and get it sold. I told Colleen at Foreign Circus Library that I love books about research, and she ever so kindly sent it to me in the post! Lucky me, I read it over the weekend.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe