First Line: Once, I scarcely believed in the devil.

Summary: Alice returns to her home after running away to get married to a man of lesser station that her family did not approve of. But when she returns her mother has died and her brother is becoming prominent in the community. She doesn't realize until she starts to hear the whispers that there is something sinister happening and she may soon be ensnared in the outcome. Witches are being accused and taken into prison. Women are being rounded up but Alice thinks that things will blow over but she begins to see that this is not going to happen.

Highlights: The storyline and plot seemed so intriguing. I love anything to do with the Salem witch trials so I was hoping that this book would be just as interesting and give me a new story and history to learn about. I love history so this appealed to me.

Lowlights: The story was so slow. I would have to force myself to read. I found myself pushing it off. I was disappointed because I wanted to like it. I did not finish this book at around 51%.

FYI: There is a few scary moments when shadows are seen but it mainly is in the imagination.

When I picked up this book, I was hoping for a crucible like experience. Thankfully, that's the feeling I got from it. I found this novel exciting and mysterious! Well done.

Beth Underdown's debut novel, The Witchfinder's Sister, is a hauntingly chilling tale from a time when being different could very well mean death. Told from the perspective of Alice Hopkins, The Witchfinder's Sister is a fictional account of the life of Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins, who is believed to be responsible for the deaths of anywhere from one to three hundred women that he deemed to be witches.

After losing her husband in an accident, Alice moves back to Manningtree to live with her younger brother. Alone, with no money, and carrying a child, she is forced to rely on her brother's good graces if she wants any semblance of comfort or a home - that, or return to London. After hearing rumors that women are being imprisoned and tried as witches, Alice finds herself drawn into the depths of her brother's sin and eventually finds herself forced to aid in these barbaric hunts. What follows is a deeply disturbing account of the fear women lived in in 17th century England.

The Witchfinder's Sister is an exceptionally well written and researched novel. Many of the chapters begin with an excerpt or transcript from books, papers, and court hearings from the actual trials that took place, though there isn't a lot of evidence to be had. While Alice Hopkins is a fictional character, the only information known about Matthew Hopkins is that he was the fourth of six children and this is another fact that Underdown acknowledges at the end of her book. While it isn't packed with action, The Witchfinder's Sister does have an eerie way of narrating certain events that actually made my skin crawl, despite the fact that I consider myself a well-seasoned horror fan.

Other reviews that I've read mention that "as a protagonist, Alice Hopkins does feel a little flat" (theirregularreaderblog.wordpress.com). From a reader's standpoint, I most definitely agree. Historically though, this is fairly accurate. After all, Alice is living in a time period where anything out of the ordinary, any sign of independence, any sign of being outspoken could easily have landed her her very own stool upon the scaffold. For that, I have to give Underdown kudos. She's managed to keep it rather interesting, despite the protagonist being hampered by society's norms. In fact, Alice's own frustration shines through brightly, instilling a feeling of the same in me as I read.

There is no doubt in my mind, after finishing this book, that Matthew Hopkins was a horrible, horrible person. In that regard, I must also commend Underdown for her success at writing him.

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 debut historical fiction novel by author Beth Underdown is one worth reading! Loosely based on the true events of the Essex witch trials that took place in 17th century England.  This story centers around the real-life person, Matthew Hopkins, who took the title of "Witchfinder General" and his fictionalized sister, Alice. While Matthew was a real person in history, the author discusses at the end what parts of the story she took liberty with and who were real players of this awful part of English history.  Approximately 106 women died at the insistence of Matthew Hopkins' evidence and testimony as he hunted down witch covens, the most being found, suspiciously, in his hometown of Manningtree.

We meet Alice, Matthew Hopkins, sister as she travels back to her hometown of Manningtree due to unfortunate circumstances. Having been away for awhile, she is unfamiliar with the power her brother has achieved and his career choice. We meet Rebecca West, who along with her mother, is accused of witchcraft and after brokering a deal with Matthew, testifies against her mother, with the promise from Matthew that he would spare her mother. We do not know the complete account of Rebecca and her mother, Anne, but we do know that Rebecca was spared in real life because she gave testimony implicating her mother.

As we experience Alice's piecing together of what has made her brother so cold and unreasonable, we see the events of 1645-1647 play out. 

This was a well-written novel that kind of genre bends a bit. It is most definitely historical fiction, however, it had a bit of mystery to it as well through Alice attempting to uncover secrets and hidden events in her family's past.  I look forward to reading more from Beth Underdown and thank her for introducing me to a portion of history that I was unaware of. Sure, I'm familiar with the Salem witch trials here in the U.S. but I had not heard of the Essex witch trials prior to reading this novel. To say, Essex overshadowed Salem in death and destruction would be an understatement. I say definitely put The Witchfinder's Sister on your TBR list!

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 historical fiction based in 1645 when the the real story of the witch trial general, Mathew Hopkins, killed over 300 women. Alice, Matthews fictional sister, just lost her husband due to a tragic accident. Not knowing how cruel  her brother had gotten, she was forced to move back to the Essex where her brother lived while hiding a pregnancy. Alice goes back in time to figure out what made her brother do all those cruel and disgusting things.

This book was well written and well researched because a lot of true events did happen back in England before hitting Salem. I wish I would have given this 5 stars, but some of the writing felt a little too modern and the middle of the book was a little slow. Also, there was a lot of focus on Alice rather than her brother, who was really the main person this story was about. Overall, it was a good book and very researched.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

This is an historical fiction book based on witch trials in Essex England before the Salem witch trials took place in America. I knew nothing of this history going into this book.

Matthew Hopkins was a true witchfinder in 1645 Manningtree, Essex, England. He has a notorious reputation for having condemned so many women of witchcraft. In this novel, his sister Alice has been living in London with her husband, Joseph. Joseph's tragic death means Alice must leave London and move back to family in Manningtree to her brother's home. She has not had contact with Matthew for some time since he did not approve of her husband Joseph. Alice believes her brother has been working as a scribe but soon picks up hints of what may really be going on in his home and in Manningtree and the surrounding areas.

This was a very well written book and also a chilling book about how easily a woman was condemned to witchcraft with little to no evidence. The book describes the tension that existed for women who were widows or single and poor, and they would be singled out as causing misfortune to others and imprisoned as witches. 

A very strong book describing events in England that I would think helped to precipitate the Salem witch trials in America.

Highly recommend.

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.

I really struggled to get into this book--it just did not catch me at all.

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.