REVIEW: The Witchfinders Sister by Beth Underdown

When Alice Hopkins' husband dies in a tragic accident, she returns to the small Essex town of Manningtree, where her brother Matthew still lives.

But home is no longer a place of safety. Matthew has changed, and there are rumours spreading through the town: whispers of witchcraft, and of a great book, in which he is gathering women's names.

To what lengths will Matthew's obsession drive him?
And what choice will Alice make, when she finds herself at the very heart of his plan?

“I did not sleep that night, or if I did, I dreamed of lying awake, hearing something in the dark.”

Whenever I see a book about the Essex witch trials, I immediately need to read it. And this one is a little close to home - literally - with Manningtree being the village next to mine and a castle near my house being a witches goal in years gone by. This book captures the real life of a witchfinder and adds a pinch of author magic and imagination to transport us back in time and consider what it felt like to live in a time of persecution and fear.

Despite the beautifully written period language, this was such an easy read - it had a perfect flow and took no time at all to fly through.

Our narrator, Alice, told a truly haunting tale with the fright and paranoia that seeps in - along with richly descriptive settings of war-torn, politically scarred lands and intense violence that make an immersive and mesmerising journey back in time. She tells us from a diarised perspective, looking back on how her brother had reached this point and the destruction he caused, first through their lives after several losses and then through his rise to infamy. There was something about hearing this from Alice, someone not witnessing it first hand for a large part of the story that was captivating in such a strange way.

A magical, powerful story about the horror stories that really happened and the human monsters who are must scarier than the ones in legend.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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