Review: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Title: The Physick Book Of Deliverance Dane

Author: Katherine Howe

Katherine’s Twitter: twitter.com/#!/katherinebhowe

376 pages, Publisher: Hyperion

Buy The Book: Amazon

My Thoughts:

Lately, I have been on quite the spooky novel bender. It was while on this spooky book marathon that I decided to give The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe a try, and boy am I glad I did! The book centers around a Harvard graduate student named Connie Goodwin. While cleaning the historic home of her deceased grandmother, Connie discovers a key in an old family Bible. Attached to the key is a piece of paper that says the name Deliverance Dane. Desperate for a primary source for her dissertation and troubled by visions she has experienced in the old home, Connie begins researching the name Deliverance Dane with hopes that it will lead to a unique source and an explanation for her visions. Soon she has reason to believe that she is looking for a book of remedies or spells that Deliverance may have authored.

Connie’s research leads her to look at the era of the Salem witch trials. Throughout the novel the plot jumps back and forth between the late 1600s and 1991. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane has many scenes that involve historical figures who were involved in the Salem witch trials. Howe brings history to the life for the reader and paints a vivid portrait of what the women accused of practicing witchcraft may have gone through in the time leading up to the trials. There is also an excellent romantic subplot that makes Connie’s search for Deliverance’s book especially urgent. What if the Salem witches were actually guilty? Howe wrote The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane with this question in mind; and the resulting story, steeped in academia and packed with interesting historical tidbits, is fascinating and engaging from the first page until the very last.

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