I could not put this book down. When I had to, I thought about it, and when I had it in my hands I would just read and read. I found Alice a bit disappointing which is why I didn't give this story 5 stars. Being a fan of pre 1800's England, I understand that women were limited in what they could and couldn't do, but I felt for Alice, that she just wen't in circles quiet the extra bit. She always seemed to be building herself up to say or do something, only to get to the desired moment, say 5 words on the subject, and then slip back to her room defeated only to start the process all over again with the same results. I think for me, I would have liked to see at least once or twice throughout the story where Alice didn't lose, or maybe if she must, than to do so with a little more fire in her words. All that being said, I know I will be reading this story again as well as recommending it to fellow readers.

The cover of this book is what drew me in at first. It shows what one can only assume is an empty room with just a plain highback chair and the back of a woman. The story is described as a historical thriller and I see some people shelved it as a paranormal/witches kind of story. If you do not like that sort of book do not let that dissuade you from reading this one. I DO NOT like anything that is in any way, shape or form scary. I avoid it like the plague. This book is anything but scary. It may be a little breath catching in a couple of places but other than that it’s fairly mundane.

The story begins in roughly 1645, in England, as Alice Hopkins is working her way back towards her childhood home of Manningtree. Her husband is dead and so is her mother. She is carrying her 5th child and hopes to carry it to term. Her 4 other pregnancies ended in miscarriage or stillbirth. As she bumps and thumps over the muddy road in the back of the wagon she wonders how her life will work out. How her brother Matthew has turned out. He was always a quiet boy, with scars down his face, chest, and arm from an accident when he was just days old. While she was never put off by the scars she knows some people are. She also hopes that her brother has forgiven her for marrying the person that she did. She seems to be welcomed back home by her brother and is tasked with returning their childhood home to its former glory for his upcoming nuptials with Ruth Edwards. While Alice lives under her brother’s roof she slowly realizes that her brother is not who she thinks he is. He is slowly and methodically capturing, torturing and killing “witches” across the British county-side. All with permission of those in a position of authority and deep pockets. Will she be able to stop her brother before it’s too late? Or will Alice be put firmly in the cross-hairs of her brother’s methodical take down as well?

I debated about giving this book 2 or 3 stars. In the end, I ended up with 3. I finished this book a few days ago and I am still not sure how I feel about it. The big thing that bothered me about this book was that it never really developed. It was more a this happened, then he went and did this. The other supporting characters seemed very one-dimensional. The ending also just kind of happened and bam the book was done. It left a lot of loose ends. I don’t know if that is what the author was going for but the character of Matthew was creepy and somewhat mental. That said, I really enjoyed the main character, Alice. She was gutsy. She seemed to have a good moral compass. She spoke her mind when she actually worked up the courage. She was, in most ways, a good, strong female character that is sometimes lacking in books. I felt sorry for Alice at times. It felt that nothing seemed to go her way. The loss of all her children, her husband’s untimely and tragic end as well as the death of all three of her parents. I did find it fascinating that the character of Matthew Hopkins is based on an actual historical character. While a large part of the story is fictional some of the events are true and are actually recorded in history books. While I am still on the fence with this story I would probably try to read other books that this author writes in the future.

Alice has returned from London, where she’s lived for five years, to her village in eastern England after the death of her husband. Her mother died recently as well, so she has come home to live with the youngest of her brothers, Matthew. It’s hard enough facing life without her husband, without her mother, and without money or possessions of her own, but when she learns her brother is compiling a list of women who are suspected of being witches, she is wary, unnerved and afraid.

The mood in 1645 is one of unrest overall because of a civil war going on in the country, and the setting is just right as Matthew Hopkins (this book is based on a real historical figure who hunted down supposed witches) goes about his plans. Here in this novel, the author creates a fictional sister for him and a background that could explain some of his actions and motivations. Matthew is scarred on parts of his face and arms from an accident in a fire when he was a baby, and he has long been on the outside of things, keeping to himself. But as he compiles his list of witches, he finds “friends” in the powerful men of the area. He also is empowered to go further and further afield to make the list ever larger.

Alice is mourning the loss of her husband and is hoping she will not lose her unborn baby, as she has so many before. She is afraid to reveal her pregnancy because she is already so dependent on her brother. But she feels compelled to try to say something to him to get him to see reason, to stop this horrific business he is bent on continuing. She is sure there’s something in his past, inside of him, that is the reason he is determined to accuse perfectly innocent women and sentence them to death by hanging. As she furtively tries to gather information from her mother-in-law, who was their family’s servant when Matthew was a baby, and try to find out clues from her late father’s journal (kept in her brother’s locked room), she feels she is getting closer to a motive, even as the danger to more women — and herself — ramps up.

The Witchfinder’s Sister creates a portrait of a tortured man through the eyes of his sister. The tension builds slowly until the very end, as secrets are slowly revealed and Alice herself faces retribution for not falling in line with her brother’s orders. While I wasn’t engrossed in the story for much of the book, I did find myself not being able to put it down as I got close to the end.

What an amazing, disturbing, twisted bit of historical fiction. The best kind of historical fiction. A look at a serious event in history, based around a bit player that we know so little about.

Matthew Hopkins was a real person in history. A self-appointed "Witchfinder General", who sought to rid the world of witches and witchcraft. Operating in Britain, as opposed to the US, which is where every piece of witchcraft history I've ever read has been. There's not much difference, but it's still amazing to think this was happening elsewhere in the world.

The story is told through the eyes of his sister, Alice. A woman who used what limited power she had in these dreadful days to try to stop her brother, and assist the townfolk caught up in Matthew's madness.

When history looks back at the men who hunted witches, at the people who accused their neighbors of sorcery, how do they see them? Religious zealots? Greedy opportunists? Scared innocents?

What if it were simple mental imbalance? Or, as referred to then, a weakness of the mind?

What if the witch hunters were sociopathic killers?

It is believed that serial killers operate regularly throughout the world, and are never discovered because they hunt prostitutes, women who matter so little that their deaths aren't viewed as anything more than a risk of the trade.

What if a serial killer used his belief that all women are wanton, lusty strumpets to spur an entire village to approve his murders?

This book doesn't spell out Matthew's reasoning. In fact, the answer we are (possibly) given as to his motives are the most disappointing part of the book, and why it only gets four stars. I found that part wasteful, and would've prefered that bit to be left to the reader to decide.

Other than that, I found this book immensely enjoyable. Or, as enjoyable as books about murdered women in Puritan times can be. Such a great read.

This is a fascinating story that is intriguing and suspenseful. Based on a real, horrifying time in history, it brings to life the feelings and consequences of the time and circumstances. It draws you into the history and mystery that is the witch trials. For those who are interested in witches, this is a great book to read.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. This is my voluntary and honest opinion of it.

This tale is a great big bundle of historical fiction, mystery, unresolved sibling rivalry, sexual tension in the mid-1600s, and some spooky stuff thrown in for good measure. The general misogyny that resulted in witch mayhem is well described in this book. The author does a tremendous job of describing the ways in which a woman might come under suspicion of being a witch. A woman might have too many children and not pay them enough attention. She might not have a child of her own and yearn too much for one, paying too much attention to the children of others through kindness. A woman might cry too much or not enough when becoming a widow or losing a child to death. In all cases the women finally accused had no one else to speak for them, their husbands dead or run away, same with any children. They were outside any social order, even the lowest, and thus available for shunning.

Enter our Witchfinder, the strangely disfigured brother, Matthew, of our heroine Alice. Once unbelievably close, they have been separated for five years and now rejoin upon the death of Alice's husband. She has nowhere else to go and is pregnant. In the interim, Matthew has become wealthier but distant and strangely odd. As our tale begins, Alice is locked in a room, without food for three days and begins to describe how her brother murdered 106 women.

There is a sense of foreboding and dread that seeps into this tale in ways that are scary and creepy. There are just the right amounts of historical information to whet your appetite for more details as the tale progresses and for google searches on your own. There are secrets within secrets that keep you reading much longer that you planned and possibly keep you up late at night. This is a big, juicy book that I loved.

I’m really on an Ancient Rome kick. After reading Confessions of Young Nero by Margaret George, I went looking for something juicy to follow up. I was not disappointed by Crystal King’s debut historical fiction.

The story follows the slave Thrasius, bought by the disgustingly rich Roman aristocrat Apicius to run his kitchen. Apicius is an already famous gourmand, and he wants to climb to the top of Roman culinary society by becoming an advisor to the Roman Emperor. Willing to go to any expense and any excess to achieve his goal, the book follows Thrasius and Apicius across a sweep of decades.

King has done a masterful job in her debut work. As with any book about Ancient Rome, the drama is high and the casual violence and cruelty is breathtaking. The world occupied by Thrasius and Apicus is vividly wrought, with a great deal of attention paid to historical accuracy. While Thrasius and his fellow slaves are fictional (identities of Roman slaves are understandably shrouded in the historical record), Apicius and his family (and other high-born Romans in this book) were all real people. Apicius himself is credited with the creation of a series of cookbooks, some of which still survive today.

King carefully crafts her major characters, giving them a multifaceted existence which lends complexity and humanity to the story. King also does a wonderful job weaving a number of disparate historical threads together into a coherent story. The span of decades allows the reader to watch as the characters grow and develop.

Any fan of historical fiction will enjoy this book. King has a wonderful (and rare) talent for blending the historical and fictional aspects of the book together, providing needed background without sacrificing pace. This is a fine drama, and should appeal to a wide variety of tastes.

An advance copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“The Witchfinder’s Sister” by Beth Underdown

Pub. Date: Feb. 27, 2017
Publisher: Penguin Books

In this historical fiction the character of the sister is fictional, but her brother, Matthew Hopkins, was a real person. And, he was a witchfinder. He even had the title of “Witchfinder General” during the English Civil war (1642-1646). (I googled that really was his title). I was hoping to read, learn a bit more about the war between the Royalists, supports of King Charles I and the Parliamentarians, supporters of the rights of Parliament, but the author decided to just educate the reader that fear of witches was pronounced by the general fear in England at this time.

The story is narrated by the sister who is widowed and forced to move back home with her brother. She quickly learns that home is no longer a safe place and her brother has grown into an evil man who longs for power. He insists that she be a part of his witch investigations. The tale reads like a psychological horror story, but is all the more terrifying knowing that such events in history did indeed happen. Hopkins was a frightening monster. “My brother, Matthew set himself to killing women…but without once breaking the law.”

The inhuman methods that Hopkins used in his investigations are difficult to read. Women were tied to a stool and not allowed to sleep for hours which often led to sleep deprived confessions. Females accused were pricked with special needles in their vaginas and if an animal licked the blood they were considered witches. Another example where death is the only outcome is when suspects were tied to a chair and thrown into water: all those who "swam" (floated) were considered to be witches and were then hung. Of course, when the innocent didn’t float they died a watery grave rather than by the gallows.

The author does an impressive job in taking the reader back into this ghastly time in history. I could feel the uncertainty and fear in the villages caused by a righteous lunatic. Who would be next? One daughter gave false evidence against a group of women who lived in her village with the promise that her mother might be spared. I will leave you to guess if mother and daughter lived. The author makes it easy to read between the lines, that the Hopkins’ witch trials had more to do with politics than potions, not to mention gender issues. Now here we are in the year of 2017 and despite all that we know, we still can breed the hysteria that can create a monster. I can’t help but wonder if humankind will ever learn.

A big thank you goes to Beth Underdown, Ballantine Books, and netgalley for this free copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"
"Why hast thou forsaken me"

Really a 3.5 one of the better witch hunt novels I've read especially since it's based on different historical perspective

The Civil War of 1640s England is rolling on, and the hunt for witches is strong in the counties. Women are arrested and persecuted for the the most ludicrous reasons, no proof necessary. And the Roundheads believe that their way of worship and governing is the correct way.

Our fictional character, Alice, returns to town after suffering the loss of her fictional husband, Joseph. She moves in with her brother, the true to life witch hunter Matthew Hopkins. By the end of his life he was responsible for the death of over 100 women accused of witch craft or of consorting with the devil, many of whom admitted guilt. Not much is known about his life outside of his witch trials, so the author takes liberty in this story. But that in no way affects its quality.

The story is told from Alice's point of view. She investigates her brother's activity as well as the secrets kept in her family that went to the grave. Matthew has no respect for females. They are all worthless whores as far as he's concerned. This includes his own sister. He's also suffered from severe scarring from a fire since childhood, which I think has had an affect on his personality.

Whenever I read books like this I always ponder my possible past lives. Had I lived in the 1640s I'm certain I would have been scrutinized as a possible witch. I'm sure of it. I'm too independent, awkward, and isolated, not to mention wanton and opinionated. And I don't go to church. I always wonder if I could have held out through the tests. They sound terrible. No wonder so many pled guilty. They didn't want to suffer the torture any longer. Some went truly mad from the pain and lack of sleep.

Looking through history man seems to cyclically find a populous to intimidate and persecute. The mid 1600s were old or otherwise quirky women. Evidence of religion gone wrong. One reason why I don't trust organized religion.

Readers of historical fiction definitely give this book a look. Quick read with some interesting info

This book was one that I found interesting from the start. It was a pretty slow moving book but I felt that it told the story fairly well. I could sense the pain of Alice not only losing her husband but having multiple miscarriages. She knew the brother she loved and remembered from her childhood was still in Matthew but needed to get out of his shadow. I had a hard time keeping interested in this book because it moved so slow.

Normally, I wouldn't be reading a witch-centered tale at this point in the year; I prefer to read this type of story in the fall, when the crunching leaves and cool wind outside put me in the mood. I couldn't wait, however, to get my hands on this new release from a freshman author, if only to see if I should recommend it for this year's great October reads list. The Witchfinder's Sister is a tale of witch-hunting in 17th century England, a time in which the slightest betrayal of propriety could mark a woman as under the influence of the devil.

The story follows Alice Hopkins, a woman who is forced to move from London back to her hometown of Manningtree after the death of her husband. Alice arrives, hoping that her fractured relationship with her brother can be healed as she will be forced to rely on his hospitality for the foreseeable future. Matthew accepts Alice into his home but he has undergone a change since the siblings had last seen each other. He has grown into a serious man, extremely private and outwardly judgmental of those who do not follow the Bible's teachings. Alice soon realizes that Matthew is doing more than just judging others -- he is taking careful notes, preparing himself for a venerable witch-hunt.

For a debut novel, this was very well written. The details were obviously well-researched, and I had no trouble putting myself into the setting of this book. For me, it's weakness was in the plot. I felt that it was awfully drawn out, and I found my interest waning until I hit the 70% mark -- that's when I started to feel invested in the story. The pace makes sense considering the setting -- there wasn't much sudden action back in the 1640's -- but some of the most interesting history behind the book didn't come in until that last 30%, and I found myself wishing that our protagonist could have spent less time pacing her room and more time in the action. My second qualm was in the character of Alice, as she was always deferential and even when she tried to stand up to the men in her life, she never actually followed through. Historically, her behavior makes sense, as she wouldn't have had many options when it came to supporting herself, but her character felt weak to me and I found myself disappointed in her tendency towards hiding away rather than standing up for herself and others.

I found the history behind the story really interesting -- Matthew Hopkins was a real figure in history, a man responsible for the death of over a hundred women whom he accused and persecuted for witchcraft. This all happened before the infamous trials in Salem and yet it's not nearly as well known. I live next to Salem (and teach there, too) and though I had heard of the trials in England I had no knowledge of the scope of Hopkin's impact. For those interested in this period of history, I would recommend this story even with my dislike for its protagonist. To me, this feels like a book that wasn't quite right for me as a reader but has the potential to be a favorite for others.

While there was much here that kept me reading, I found it to have been less than it might have been. The historical documents that Underdown included, which used the archaic patterns of speech, were inserted just often enough to make me wish the entire novel had been written using those same patterns, for then it would truly have read as the first-hand account that the novel purports to be.

There were a couple of tantalizing roads I thought the author was going to take the reader down that just went nowhere, hints at things that suggested that there may have been occult forces at work. I'm still scratching my head over why they were included.

Altogether, this was a disappointment.

In 1645, Alice Hopkins’ husband died in a horrible accident leaving her to return to to the small Essex town of Manningtree where her brother lived to move in with him. Little did Alice know that her brother had changed though with rumors of him having a book of women’s names that accused them of witchcraft. With Alice hiding a pregnancy she slowing begins to uncover the darker side of her brother Matthew.

The Witchfinder’s Sister is a fictional tale based on the real person Matthew Hopkins. Matthew actually was known as a witch hunter in the time the book is based and was known for being responsible for the deaths of 300 women between the years 1644 and 1646. The author has loosely based this fictional tale upon his real life giving readers a look into that era.

I have to say this wasn’t particularly a bad book and I can see some people loving the story but for me I just couldn’t get into most of it due to the slow pacing. The beginning started off rather well and I thought I would also be one loving this read but it became a bit dry for my taste after a while and I just couldn’t get behind Alice or the story she was telling to keep my attention and interest for long.

After pushing through the slowness I didn’t mind the ending of the story too much either but in the end I decided to rate this one at 2.5 stars just for the slowness of the read to me. I liked what the author was trying to do but perhaps there was just too much focus on Alice and not even on Matthew who is the real star of the story to keep up my interest.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

From 1644 to 1646, over 300 women (this is a conservative estimate) lost their lives in Essex, England and the surrounding area. Why? Because they were accused of being witches! Their accuser was Matthew Hopkins and this is his story told by his sister. Not a lot is known about Matthew or his family, making this is a historical fiction. This novel tries to explain why Matthew viciously accused these women, some mentally incapacitated and how he brought about their hangings. Up until this time few women lost their lives for this crime but he changed all this.

This story is told from the viewpoint of Matthew’s sister, Alice. It is told in her voice as she is documenting the horrifying details of the past two years and how she was forced to assist him. In this way, she is attempting to ensure that history would not repeat itself. This method of storytelling allows the author to present details of both their lives which makes the story interesting and page turning. It tells both characters’ past and present lives and the suspense slowly builds as you realize the details that have turned Matthew into the monster that he is. The story comes to a traumatic, shocking conclusion that can’t be foreseen and leaves you shaking your head.

I found this book to be very thought-provoking. Since little is actually known about the Hopkins family, fact and fiction are interspersed throughout. When I was done reading, I was compelled to look up the history of this man and also about the witch hunts that many women lost their lives to. I would recommend this book more for young adult to adult readers because some of the information contained may be disturbing to young readers.

Review from off-centerviews.blogspot.com

The Witchfinder’s Sister. By Beth Underdown. Ballantine Books, 2017, 336 pages.
★★★★

Americans reflexively think of Salem whenever witch trials are conjured. We forget that the Puritans that conducted Salem's horrors were Englishmen, just as we forget that (by some estimates) 50,000 Europeans were executed for witchcraft from 1500 to 1800, 80% of them women. A half century before Salem (1692), witchcraft hysteria swept East Anglia, particularly Essex, Wessex, and Suffolk.

The most notorious of England’s witchfinders were John Stearne and Matthew Hopkins, both of whom figure prominently in Beth Underdown’s gripping debut. Bear in mind that this is a historical novel. Very little is known of the historical Matthew Hopkins (?1620-47), other than the fact his father was a clergyman, and that Matthew moved to Manningtree, Essex sometime around 1640. From there he launched a two-year reign of terror in 1644-46 that saw more 300 individuals arrested, around a hundred of whom were executed. We don’t know if he had a sister, let alone one named Alice, Underdown’s protagonist and narrator. Moreover, Hopkins probably died of TB, not the more satisfying ending Underdown provides. So bear in mind as you read that the story is “true” in its essence, but not in its particulars.

They are mighty fine particulars, though. Underdown gives us a portrait of how hysteria begins small—whispers, gossip, grudges, innuendo¬—and gathers steam when embraced by bullies, demagogues, and fanatics. She imagines Hopkins as more complex than a monster, a true believer who justified doing unspeakable things as advancing God's work. Alice and her associates represent the voices of reason. And never shall the twain meet, especially in a climate rent asunder by the English Civil War. Alice also represents a protest against misogyny, but that too was a cry in the 17th century social wilderness. Thus the catastrophe that unfolded. Underdown uses her invented characters to personalize the tragedy and give us entrée into specifics. Her description of a "swimming," a watery test for malevolence, is particularly vivid and makes us shudder. Ditto her depictions of witch "detection" tactics such as sleep deprivation, walking, watching, and examining for imps.

Most of all, though, the clash between Matthew and Alice over the unfolding events gives us both a micro and macrocosm perspective on the witchcraft trials. It is easy to forget that both accusers and victims were also ordinary people who prepared meals, emptied chamber pots, tended their gardens, mourned lost loved ones, courted, and conducted business. Underdown does a nice job of capturing the rhythms of everyday life without getting bogged down in minutiae that would detract from the central plot. She's also good with suspense. We, the readers, can see Alice's options melt and the walls begin to close in around her. It is to Underwood's credit that we feel like screaming out for Alice to run and keep turning the pages to see if she does.

To be objective, this book also bears some of the weaknesses of a debut novel. Several of the characters are drawn a bit too broadly; others (too) conveniently appear and disappear. Stylistically, I wish Underwood and her editors would learn when to use "her" and when to use "she." You can decide for yourself if she went over the top with her ending. I understand the allure of delicious irony, but sometimes it's better to leave things understated. You will also have to decide whether our narrator, Alice, is credible for the time period, or if she is a 21st century feminist in 17th century drag. For the record, I think Underwood wanted to have her both ways, hence I was willing to suspend disbelief in passages I found ahistorical.

The Witchfinder's Sister is a chilling tale that most readers will rip through. We should remember, though, that Matthew Hopkins was a real person and that his The Discovery of Witches was widely consulted as a go-to guide for more than a century. Salem loomed in the future, but European witch trials continued into the 19th century. England had a case of witch swimming as late as 1863, even though it repealed its witchcraft laws 127 years earlier. Underwood's novel ultimately made me think upon how easily hysteria forms and how hard it is to vanquish. Maybe the 17th century lurks closer than we might imagine.

Rob Weir

Wow, what a read. I was engrossed from the start! If you like historical fiction, this is a great one.
Set during Europe's witch trails around 1645.. Who knew? Europe had witch trials too?! This story
follows Alice after her husband's death. She seeks refuge with her brother Matthew Hopkins in the
small town where they grew up. She discovers that Matthew is an investigator into possible witches..
Torn between her family and her disgust for his profession.. as well as the reliance women had on the
men in their lives.. Alice becomes an unwilling observer and participant.

This book covers an interesting historical event that most Americans are unfamiliar with. We always
think of the Salem witch trials.. hundreds of women were executed in Europe before Salem. Throughout
the book the reader really identifies with Alice. She's stuck in this situation that she abhors, but Matthew
has such control over her life, that there's nothing to be done.

Would recommend! 5 stars

I really enjoyed reading this book. I found the history to be fascinating and liked how the fictional part added a possible sister to the story. It was a very interesting approach to weave true fact with fictional embellishment. Matthew Hopkins was a despicable person and seen through the eyes of his sister Alice, he was even more of a monster! It is hard to believe that this witch hunting took place in history. After finishing the book I felt compelled to do some research to read more about Matthew Hopkins. An unpleasant topic but a well told story.

We are England in 1645. The witchfinder is Matthew Hopkins, a man scarred and haunted by a painful accident at birth and who carries deeper scars within. The sister is Alice, childless and newly widowed, she must return to Manningtree, her family home, and seek refuge with her brother. Alice is disturbed by the difference in the town since she left just five years before. Now, there is distrust, suspicion and death.
Matthew is a hunter of witches, sanctioned by the laws and the men who look to scripture for validation. Now, no one is safe and Alice defies her brother and the whisperings of others to find the reason for his visciousness. But no one is safe from him, not even herself.
What makes this all the more soul wrenching is that Matthew Hopkins, witch finder, was a historical person and historically, these witch hunts were carried out before Salem. It’s our knowing the future that makes this richly historical story the scariest.

What a cool book! Anything involving witch hunts and witch trials is interesting to me, and this was well written and engaging.

This book was all right. The topic was interesting, but the story lagged in places. It's not a book I would read again.