After the death of her husband, Alice Hopkins has no other choice than to return to her childhood home in Manningtree to live with her brother Matthew. But a lot has happened there while she was away and her brother has changed. They haven’t been in contact for years and Matthew didn’t approve her choice of husband and still hasn’t forgiven her.

Little by little Alice discovers that it is Matthew who is behind hunting women and accusing them of witchcraft. But she is horrified when she realizes that Matthew wants her to join him in the quest to find witches.

The first part of the book was really slow and boring so I was thinking about quitting but I still wanted to know how it ends. I mean all the action was in the latter half of the book.

I wasn’t huge fan of Alice and just didn’t connect with her. I just wished she had more backbone. She was too easily influenced by what others think and would agree with them. Then someone else says this and then she agrees with them and so on. She did got little better at the end and I was happy about the ending. I didn’t get why she would tell Matthew about her pregnancy. It probably wouldn’t have made him any warmer or anything but still.

Matthew well… he had his reasons sort of… He is evil person who truly believes in the existence of witches. He really does believe he is doing the right thing. He is not a nice person, I’ll just leave it there.

I have to say I didn’t like this as much as I thought I would but everyone else seems to love this so what do I know. But I was just bored and not scared.

History, witch-hunts and family strife - I knew this book was going to be right up my street.    Beth Underdown has recreated the reign of terror conducted in the mid 17th century by self-styled Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins through the eyes of his fictional sister Alice.  Recently widowed, Alice returns home to live with her brother following the death of their mother and finds him in the midst of a brutal campaign to rid Essex of suspected witches, using dubious methods such as 'swimming' (ie immersing a woman in water to see if she floats, in which case she's a witch, or drowns). Alice, pregnant and penniless, has no choice but to follow her brother's orders and act as his unwilling assistant.

Hopkins is portrayed as a mean-spirited and zealous man, bitter about the scars which have blighted his face since a childhood accident, and suspicious of all women due to a turbulent childhood with his mentally unstable mother.   The atmosphere of fear, suspicion and betrayal which blighted the Essex villages Hopkins and his cronies reigned over is skilfully and convincingly portrayed, and Beth Underdown has blended the few facts that are known about Hopkins from historical documents into an absorbing and intriguing story which I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

DNFed at 75%, skim read from 60%.

At first thought, I decided the parts of this book I had enjoyed deserved two stars. After careful consideration (and possibly for the first time ever) I have decided to change my initial rating to one star. If I can't finish a book, then it simply can't get more than one star in my mind.

This is a historical fiction novel that focuses on a fictional sister of a real person named Matthew Hopkins, who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of women in the 17th century in England. Before reading this book, I wasn't familiar with who Matthew Hopkins was, so I did some reading around about him and found everything I read to be interesting and somewhat chilling, so requested this book expecting great things.

Some early reviews came out when I was still quite early on in my reading experience, all of which were glowing reviews, so I was excited to be reading something that seemed so suitable to my reading tastes. I throughly enjoyed the first twenty five to thirty percent of this book, and struggled to put it down. I found the writing to be spectacular, and the author has talent, I'm just not sure that talent managed to shine for the entire novel in this case.

I'd say my biggest problems with this book overall were that it was too slow, and that after the first thirty percent, everything went downhill for me. I lost the initial atmospheric feeling from the first portion of the novel. I suddenly had no interest in the characters, and I felt like I was reading a terrible history book almost. The writing went very dry, and I was having to force myself to pick this book up and then push myself even harder just to read each page. Every once in a while, the atmosphere from the beginning, and the power the beginning of the book had, would come back, and I'd find my faith restored, but this seemed to be something the author just couldn't hold.

I am someone who struggles to give up on books, especially books sent to me to review. At half way I decided I needed to do something about this, and that if I was still torturing myself to read it at sixty percent, then I would skim read. This is what I ended up doing, and then when things got better I would spend a few pages reading properly. I intended to do this until the very end of the book, but at seventy five percent I was losing the will to read a book ever again. I just could not connect with the characters or the plot for any consistent amount of time, and decided to make the decision to give up on this book for my own sanity.

It is due to my experience that I am unable to recommend this book to anyone. I thought this would be my ideal book, I really enjoy historical fiction novels, and have read some slow ones over the years, so again this shouldn't have posed a problem to me. I did some reading around the topic of this book before reading, so I knew what I was getting myself into, and yet I just feel this book failed to deliver. The author clearly has talent, as proven in the first quarter or so of this novel, I just feel she failed to execute what she had originally set out to do, and lost her way along the way. This is a debut novel by the author, and I won't let this experience put me off trying something by her in the future, as I do think she has real potential. This book just sadly didn't work for me.

I heard about this book from someone's Teaser Tuesday (or was it a review?) and it sounded so good I had to check if NetGalley had it. Luckily they did and my request was approved so I got to read it!

The Witchfinder's Sister is a novel based on Matthew Hopkins, who was an actual person. The sister in question, however, is made up. Alice Hopkin's husband dies and having no other place to go, goes back to her brother, Matthew. He's just beginning to get into the groove of witch-hunting and while she doesn't know much at first, she starts to know more. At the heart of the matter is the question: why is Matthew doing this?

The book is written mainly in first-person, interspersed with a few excerpts (not sure if the book is real or not because my knowledge is woefully lacking). I mention this only because there is one passage that is suddenly transitioned into second person and it was rather jarring. I definitely preferred the main first-person point of view that was used.

The story was, as expected, captivating. Alice is a sympathetic character who does as much as she can (although it is very little). The mystery of why Matthew is so set on hunting witches - and how that relates to their past, was well-done and the information was given out in a way that made sure the tension of the book didn't flag.

The characters that stood out the most were Alice, Matthew, and Bridget, Alice's mother-in-law and their family's ex-servant. I found Bridget to be the most inexplicable because several of her actions - like her attitude to Alice after she married her son and her reluctance to tell the truth to Alice even though it would have helped - were hard to fathom. I suppose that makes her a good counterpoint to Matthew, whose motives are also a mystery.

If you're in the mood for a historical novel set in a rather dark time, I think The Witchfinder's Sister will hit the spot. It is definitely not a lighthearted read, but it is captivating and well-written (except for that one second-person passage but this is more of preference than anything).

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

Brilliant! A beautifully written account a dark and shameful period in the history of England. Matthew Hopkins, self appointed witchfinder has worked his way up the ranks to become a man of standing and one to be reckoned with. Living at the inn at Manningtree following the death of his mother, he has become obsessed with all things supernatural. His sister, Alice, recently widowed and pregnant makes her way back to the shelter of the brother she was so close to during childhood. But Matthew has changed. His business is now finding and sending to trial those women accussed of consorting with the devil,

This was a dark time for women in the 1640s, before Salam and without justice. There is much poetic license here: very little is known about the real Matthew Hopkins or even if he did indeed have a sister. But what we do know is what he did to those women and the story that Beth Underdown weaves is as compelling as it is horrifying. I raced through this book, it was so good. Outside of the truly horrific fate of the accused women, I was also left with a deeply unsettling sense that something other than Matthew's childhood was haunting him. Gripping, thrilling and my read of the year so far.

Most people with an interest in 17th century history, and in particular, the 'Witch Trials' era, will have heard of Matthew Hopkins, self appointed Witchfinder General. This book is a work of fiction based on his life that also draws on some of the harrowing events recorded of the interrogations and trials he presided over.

An author's note at the end of the book tells us that according to a local census of the time, Matthew Hopkins may have had a sister. The protagonist of this novel is a fictional conjuring of this sister, Alice, who we meet in 1640. Alice is travelling home to her step-brother Matthew's home after the death of her husband, Joseph in a tragic accident. Widowed and pregnant, she has no other option but to return to the family home, where Matthew is now the undoubted head of the household following the recent death of his Mother.

Matthew is a complex man, for the most part unpleasant, surly and a law until himself. He's thoroughly unlikeable, and given that Alice is completely at his mercy, it's a frustrating read in places, as Matthew is obsessed with seeking out 'witches' and punishing them for their largely imagined or made-up crimes. Often these women are just people he's taken a dislike to. Matthew is a man of many secrets, and some very obvious issues surrounding the scars he bears from a childhood accident - as the tale unfolds, the reasons for his hatred and paranoia become clearer.

The Witch trials were notorious for the torturous and immoral methods that led to many of the 'confessions' of the doomed, and this author does not spare the reader from the detail.It's horrifying that one man could be responsible for the terrible fate of so many innocent women and the fact that it's largely based on non-fiction does make it a difficult read at times.

This is partially because Beth Underdown manages to evoke the grim helplessness of the time brilliantly - I felt cold a lot of the time I was reading this novel and that is down to how well she writes, and how the chill creeps into her words. For a debut novel, and especially one with a tricky historical placement, she has really captured the hopelessness so many felt at these events, and has wrapped it up in the strong, and at most times courageous, Alice. I felt at times that we never really got to know Alice, and her inner feelings and thoughts because she was purely reactive to Matthew's behaviour, however when I'd finished this book I realised that this could reflect the fact that in the 17th century, women weren't really able to be themselves - they were vessels of childbearing and did pretty much what they were told by their husbands and Fathers, or they faced the consequences. With men like Matthew Hopkins determining those consequences, trying to stand up to him and his like, could, and did prove fatal to many. It makes me thankful that women are now considered, in most ways, equal, and I feel lucky to be born in modern times.

One thing I have to say, is that the final chapter, in particular the last line - gave me chills. Utter chills. I wanted to clap my hands over my face and throw the book across the room (though my kindle would not have thanked me for it!).

I received a copy of this book in return for an honest and fair review.

This historical novel blends fact and fiction into a haunting and compelling story. Set in seventeenth century Eng;and, the story begins with Alice, now widowed, and pregnant, returning home from London to her family. When she gets back, to her brothers house, she finds her brother, Mathew Hopkins, has embarked on a new career, and is now the self styled Witchfinder General. Forced to live on her brothers charity and at first incredulous that her brother actually believes in witches, she watches in horror as poor, uneducated women are taken and examined for witchcraft. The tension builds as Alice is forced to accompany her brother when he begins travelling the countryside in search of more witches during the famous witch hunts of the 1640's. This book is uncomfortable reading at times, although the character building is good and it is a facinating period in our history. Some parts of the novel seem a bit slow, but the character of Alice is vivid and draws you in. There is a neat twist at the end,

Ok, I'll admit that I was mainly attracted to this book because it was set in Essex. I had no idea that the UK's most notorious county was a hotbed of witch trials in the 1640s. If you're a bit of English history buff, then this is one for you. The story is centred on Alice Hopkins, the fictional sister of the very real Matthew Hopkins. He was a self-appointed 'witchfinder' whose interrogation methods led to the execution of around 300 women between 1644 and 1646 in England and practices influenced the Salem witch trials in the USA. So whilst the story is fictional, it is steeped in fact and the author does a great job at weaving these elements together. The story is gripping and easy to read. I spent most of the story wishing Alice would run away from her awful brother and frustrated by the lack of options for women at this time. An intelligent, feminist thriller.

Readers who love the Bronte sisters will adore The Witchfinder's Sister by Beth Underdown.

This unique novel is set in England in 1645. A civil war rages, destabilizing the country. Throughout history, evil men have manipulated the chaos of such eras in order to project their sadistic, psychotic delusions with impunity. These cowards often go unpunished because they choose to victimize marginalized individuals who are among the poor, physically different, mentally deficient--and of course, women. Some things never change.

The antagonist in this tale is a fictionalized version of the legendary Matthew Hopkins, Witch-finder General who hunted down and executed over two hundred witches. The protagonist is his fictional sister Alice who has recently been widowed and is penniless. She is forced to go to her loving brother for support. It is her only option.

The dark and brooding plot is extremely complex and convoluted. There are numerous surprises. It could be said the most important unraveling concerns Matthew's past--a magical past that augurs his twisted behavior. And of course, there must be a mad woman locked away from the world.

This is not a tale of the supernatural, but a hint of it does creep in on a couple occasions. When Alice first spends the night at her brother's inn, she cleans her comb and carefully places the hair into a fire, to be sure it cannot be used against her, magically. Is there a hint of witchfinder hibernating within her? At another time, a dark presence rubs against her as her brother enters their mother's house. It is evident that both Alice and Matthew believe in the supernatural. Some readers might wish for more of this. However, such a turn might subvert the message that lurks in the subtext.

Underdown does a masterful job of creating a sense of place. Readers are gifted with a virtual tour of England in 1645, right down to the chamber pots. Every scene rings with authenticity. It is obvious that she is an expert on the era. Readers interested in period novels will not be disappointed.

Alice Hopkins might remind readers of Jane Eyre since she comes off as rather contained and a bit too calm in the face of danger. Like Jane Eyre, she knows her place, so this is to be expected. In addition, readers do not view her directly; instead, they read her journal which at times seems disjointed. Not to worry--at the end it all comes together and makes perfect literary perfect sense.

The Witchfinder's Sister is more than a surprising, satisfying novel. It is a commentary on evil and how it can be institutionalized and made acceptable. Perhaps there is a tiny bit of the witchfinder in each of us, and we need to be reminded of the evil that lurks within, waiting for the right circumstances to render it acceptable.

rougeskireads

In 1645, Alice Hopkins returns home, from London, to Manningtree in Essex where after a change in her circumstances she is a widow, pregnant and penniless. She now has the need to fall upon the mercy of her half-brother, Matthew, to give her bread and board. However, Alice finds out, to her cost, that Matthew is involved in a mysterious and unholy business, which keeps him out late and brings him into contact with some influential and dangerous people.

The book is a beautifully written observation of human nature with all its many facets and disguises. On one side, we have Matthew, who is utterly convinced that what he is doing is ridding the world of evil, whilst at the same time we have the creeping terror of women being wrongfully accused and woefully represented. There is no doubt that witch finding was a deadly occupation, and the book doesn’t shy away from the scurrilous and uncomfortable detail of how witch examinations took place and of the unwholesome justice that allowed lonely and vulnerable women to be exploited in such a dreadful way.

Time and place is captured perfectly and for the short time it took for me to read the novel I felt like I was fully immersed in seventeenth century life. The stifled and gloomy atmosphere of living at the old Thorn Inn with Matthew comes vividly to life as does the subservient nature of those women who Matthew employs to keep his home in order. Alice very quickly became an integral character and I think that her relationship with her half-brother and that of the family dynamic was finely examined and utterly believable.

There is much to take in, not just about the perverse superstition of a country very much in a state of instability, as the English civil war was still raging, but also in the way that people’s attitude towards each other was uncomfortably wary and so often irrationally distrustful. In many ways this made it easier for Matthew Hopkins to go about his deadly witch finding business as communities were all too eager to point the finger of blame towards those defenceless women who had no hope of ever redeeming themselves.

Filled with superstition, secrets, gossip and innuendo, The Witchfinder’s Sister brings to life a shameful part of our past in a story which lives on long after that fabulous last sentence which made my blood run cold.

This is a very interesting book. When you think you have it all figured out, something happens and you start doubting yourself. That is why I was never sure about the supernatural element, although I tend to think magic really exists in the book's universe.

I like Alice. She is a woman ahead of her time, a woman who thinks for herself and states her beliefs. As you might imagine for 1645, that gets her into a lot of trouble. Especially with her brother.

And speaking of Matthew, he is the product of deficient nurture and nature. I felt sorry for him although he did horrific things to women. I felt sorry for the child while despising the grownup.

The atmosphere of the book is accurate and I praise Beth Underdown for it. It's all about fear and witch hunting. About men controlling their women. It gives you goosebumps. And the ending is simply perfect. Especially that last sentence. It will remind you that you're never entirely safe.

Narrated by sister Alice who is writing the history of Matthew from a chamber, we’re taken back to her journey to Manningtree when things are only just beginning. Alice is our hook into what takes place. Not only is it through her we witness events but her own personal story gives added depth and means it is easy to be emotionally invested in her. There are also scenes with one of the accused that changes things from something distant and remote (names in a ledger) into something that lodges in your heart and makes you feel.

As you’re reading you can feel the weight of the oppression, the fear and the uncertainty. The isolation at the Thorn and even attending church there is a sense of doom, that something awful is going to happen. These feelings tie in with what is happening around them politically and religiously. It really felt as if I was there! I have ancestors who were in the Suffolk parishes at around this time and The Witchfinder’s Sister really hit home for me that they would have been living under the same fears and conditions. This was real …

I always enjoy stories that blend fact and fiction. I think it’s the curiosity about the facts mixed with the creativity, allowing events to be fleshed out in the author’s own particular style, that draws me in. Beth Underdown has skilfully woven them together in The Witchfinder’s Sister to create a dark, heavy and hard hitting story which brings to life the fear and pain that Matthew Hopkins caused.

1645, England, year four of the Civil War. Matthew Hopkins is gaining reputation as Witchfinder General - a man with a somewhat troubled past, he is travelling around various towns to condemn women as witches. This tale is told by his sister, Alice, who moves back in with her brother after she falls on hard times. Their relationship is strained - can Alice stop Matthew? Or will she put herself in harms way by even trying?

Essex 1645 and England is still recovering from the ravages of the Civil War. When Alice returns to her home village after the death of her husband she finds her brother Matthew growing in power. He believes that witchcraft is rife and sees magic and malice everywhere. Alice becomes increasingly terrified of what her brother is doing. This is a scary and deep read - it highlights how power can corrupt and if a hold on rational thought is light then power can also have horrific results.

The Witchfinder’s Sister is Beth Underdown’s first novel. I was drawn to it first by the title and the cover, but the subject – the English witch trials of the 1640s – appealed to me too.

The title character is Alice Hopkins, a fictional sister of Matthew Hopkins, the self-styled Witchfinder General who was believed to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of women in England over a period of several years in the middle of the 17th century. At the beginning of the novel, following the death of her husband in London, Alice is returning to Manningtree, Essex, where her brother still lives. The two have not been on good terms ever since Alice married the son of a servant, Bridget, whom Matthew blames for the childhood accident which has left his face scarred. Now, though, she hopes they can put the past behind them and move on.

Moving into her brother’s lodgings at the Thorn Inn, Alice is relieved to find that he is willing to let her stay with him – but she quickly discovers that the years have changed Matthew and that he is not the same man she left behind. She hears disturbing rumours about him in the town, linking him with accusations of witchcraft against local women, and when she discovers that he is making lists and collecting evidence, Alice must decide whether or not to intervene.

The novel gets off to a slow start as characters are introduced and background information is provided, with lots of flashbacks to earlier events in Alice’s and Matthew’s lives, but after a few chapters the pace begins to pick up. Not knowing much about the real Matthew Hopkins, I found Underdown’s portrayal of him very intriguing. The lack of known facts relating to his early days gives her the freedom to create a convincing backstory for him, and I appreciated the way she delves into his personal history, revealing family secrets and trying to show how incidents from his childhood may have helped to shape the man he will become. Only seeing him through Alice’s eyes – the novel is written in the first person – makes it difficult to penetrate below the surface and really understand him, but that just makes him all the more chilling and unnerving.

I thought Alice was a less interesting character, maybe because her main role as narrator is to tell the story of Matthew and the women accused of witchcraft rather than taking an active part in events herself. I found her slightly bland – although I did have some sympathy as she was forced to stand by and watch as her brother carried out his terrible deeds, not knowing what she could say or do to help his victims. It would have been nice to have had the opportunity to get to know some of the so-called witches in more depth; most of them were little more than names on the page, and I think if I had been able to care about their fates on an emotional level that would have added an extra layer to the novel. Having said that, I was fascinated by the descriptions of Hopkins’ methods of identifying witches, particularly the one referred to as ‘watching’ – I had heard about that before, but hadn’t fully appreciated the discomfort and torment involved in it.

The book ends in a way that is slightly difficult to believe, but I liked it and thought it added a good twist! Based on this novel, I think Beth Underdown can look forward to a successful writing career; there were things that I liked about it and others that I didn’t like as much, but on the whole I enjoyed it and would certainly be interested in reading more by this author.

The Witchfinder's Sister by Beth Underdown is a great read for anyone who loves historical novels highlighting the witch hysterias of Salem, etc.

Following her husband's death, Alice, left pregnant and without means of supporting herself, has to return home to Essex and the household of her younger half-brother Matthew. In the years she's been away things have changed. A tense atmosphere fills the air; children and animals have died, crops have failed, and the talk is of witchcraft being behind it all. Matthew sees himself as the man to track down these witches. He has a book, in which he is noting names, accusations, and the tell-tale signs that mark out a witch, and is determined that none escape punishment. As his scope widens beyond their town, Alice finds herself unwillingly becoming part of his scheme, and soon it seems like no one (or at least no woman) will be safe from accusations ...


Set in the mid-seventeenth century at the time of the English Civil War, this novel is based on the true story of the self-styled Witch-finder General, Matthew Hopkins, who scoured East Anglia rooting out what he believed were sources of witchcraft and putting the practitioners to death. The character of Alice is fictional but gives an excellent way of seeing behind the scenes, of witnessing Hopkins' growing obsession at close quarters, from the point of view of someone who disapproves of the course he is taking but is powerless, as an impoverished female dependant, to stop him.
The author does a great job of building the tense atmosphere, cranking it up as Hopkins' pursuit of these 'witches' continues. As in most cases of witchcraft the accused are women - generally old, un-educated, often disliked by their neighbours, and without relatives or friends willing to protect them - and an accusation has very little to do with any real occult practices. Whether the actions of men like Hopkins are down to deep-seated hatred of women, the working out of personal grudges or religious intolerance is something that can be argued over for ever.
Considering the story as fiction, I felt a little frustrated at times that Alice did nothing more practical to try and stop her brother's actions BUT of course a historical novel has to be bound by the facts, so, whatever she may have felt, Alice had to remain powerless. Also I think the story may work better if the reader is unaware of the general history of witchcraft trials and Matthew Hopkins' role in particular - it was knowing a little about him that made me want to read the book but that knowledge pre-empted much of what happened within its pages. I'd definitely recommend it though for fans of historical fiction, particularly those less aware of the period and characters involved.

The Witchfinder's Sister is set in the mid-1600s and opens with Alice returning to Essex to live with her brother, Matthew Hopkins. Her husband is dead and she is pregnant and destitute. Alice and Matthew were very close as children but they parted on bad terms when she married the son of their old servant, Bridget - the woman Matthew blames for the accident that left him scarred.

Alice is uneasy to realise that not only is their childhood bond is no more, Matthew intimidates her. One of the servants tells her he has a great book that has the names of all the witches written down in it. Yet this is the 17th century - who believes in witches?

But in the town there is talk. Young children have died and people are saying it was done with witchcraft. Alice assumes the gossip will come to nothing. The women arrested are obvious choices - elderly, eccentric, living alone. Despite Bridget's pleas for her to speak to Matthew, to do something, Alice remains quiet, believing the women will be found innocent. Instead, more women are seized and Matthew turns his attention to other towns and villages - and now he wants Alice to help him.

The Witchfinder's Sister is one of the best books I've read this year. It is beautifully written with so much historical detail I felt as though I was there, witnessing it all. The atmosphere is dark and brooding, with the occasional hint of the supernatural. The subject matter is bleak; it is based on real events, so anyone familiar with history will know there can be no happy ending for some of these women. However, the author has mixed fictional characters in with the real ones to keep the reader on edge, and there are a few very clever twists - including one I'm still thinking about!

From our 21st century perspective, it is easy to laugh at those who believed in spells, charms and witchcraft. But then you realise how easily a petty squabble can be blown up out of proportion, how easy it is to blame someone else for your misfortune - and suddenly The Witchfinder's Sister seems horribly topical.

There is not much actual violence in the novel, the subject matter is disturbing enough, but it is bleak in places. Anyone who enjoys well-researched historical novels, or real-life stories of witches, will love this. The cover is absolutely beautiful and the final line is brilliant. I'm hoping there's going to be a sequel!

I definitely recommend it - I'd give it six stars if I could.

One of my favorite classes in college was a history course where our focus was on witches. We examined various outbreaks of witch scares in Europe and the American colonies, compared how they unfolded and the methods for dealing with the accused, we looked at who the accused tended to be and why they might have been accused (spoiler alert: mostly widows and single women who were in more independent positions than the men in their communities were comfortable with them having). So a novel like Beth Underdown’s upcoming The Witchfinder’s Sister should be right up my alley.

Having just lost her husband in an accident, Alice returns home to her brother, Matthew’s, home where their mother has also recently died. It has been several years since Alice has seen her brother who did not approve of her marriage and in their time apart it quickly becomes clear to Alice that much about him has changed. He has gained a noted position in their old community since he has become involved in taking down complainants’ accounts and questioning accused witches in the area. Alice is horrified but convinces herself that it will all blow over in the end while also piecing together the truth of what happened in her parents’ household that might be driving Matthew in his mission. Will she be able to save anyone from her brother?

Underdown addresses a lot of the usual—and expected—themes in modern novels surrounding the subject of witch trials. Her inspiration is rooted in the historic record; there really was a Matthew Hopkins who worked in England questioning accused witches for trial in the 1640s. The character of Alice—the narrator—however, is entirely fictional. The elements of the “mystery” surrounding the happenings in Alice and Matthew’s childhood household don’t always work well with the larger happenings of the witch hunting and later trials. The tension of the family story develops in a choppy manner while the witch finding is—in keeping with the frame of being Alice’s later account of what happened—forced to the background of things for much of the tale.

The thematic resonance is easily detected when it comes to the unjust subjugation of women, but also strikes notes towards the end that deal with introspection and forgiveness. Despite Alice’s quasi-obsession with what might be driving Matthew in his actions, she never actually appears to arrive at any sort of definitive conclusion; it’s a mess formed mostly of events that she already knew (but was withholding from the reader) and easily guessed revelations. Given the predictable—to anyone remotely familiar with witch scares—course of events, the pacing in the novel posed a problem for me. The events were stretched out just that little bit too long; I was still about a hundred pages from the end when my patience ran out and I lost any emotional investment in Alice and the other characters. There are only so many times Alice can mention trying to thwart her brother’s plans and back down from it before it grows tedious. Just a little streamlining would have been greatly appreciated.

The Witchfinder’s Sister will be available for purchase March 2, 2017 in the UK and April 25, 2017 in the US.

As an Essex girl, born and bred, I'm always intrigued to read books set in the county so that got me interest in reading the blurb of this, along with the fact that it is loosely based on the real life character of Matthew Hopkins 'The Witchfinder General' who is famous for his role in the killing of women in the 17th century around the region of Manningtree, who were thought to be witches. The fact that the evidence against those women - rumoured to be about 300 women in just under 3 years that were killed - was based mostly on rumours amongst villagers or even the fact that woman had a birthmark or mole - evidence enough for the witchfinders to condemn the women to hang.

In this book we follow the story of Alice, his sister, who in 1645 moved back to Manningtree to see her brother after the death of her husband. Her brother had always been strange and seen as different from a child, as he was badly burned in a fire as a child, but when Alice returns she notices a much darker side to his personality and learns of his life now as a witch finder and that he is killing women, but legally!.

Alice as a character in herself, is also an extremely interesting woman as she has dealt with much trauma in her life and her attempts to keep her brother from his quest is a brave one but a reckless one. He takes her out on his witch hunts to help with the 'interrogation' and it is quite harrowing to read of what he makes her do, and what the women under suspicion have to endure. She also begins to learn more of her recently deceased mother, and her father too which adds more depth to the story and shines some light on their troubled childhoods.

I really loved the pace of this book - it is a little slow at times, but that really helps the characters build and gives you a great insight to life at the time and in the surrounding areas which are wonderfully brought to life as his quest to hunt out more witches picks up pace. It never goes over the top and deals with subject matter in a calm and understated way.

It is fascinating to take a person from history and create a story around someone who there isn't much known about his persona or personal life, and I think it works so well in this book to create an imagined storyline - it cleverly feels very real as the story picks up pace towards the end and I am now also inspired to read more about the Witch Trials and how this sad period of history was allowed to gather such pace.

A fascinating and well written debut and I look forward to reading more from the author in the future!