The Heretic's Daughter

Have you ever had a conflict with a neighbor?  Have you ever butted heads with your teenaged child?  Have you ever said a sharp word you wanted to take back once you said it?  What if doing any or all of these things could get you jailed for being a witch?

Kathleen Kent, author of The Heretic's Daughter, is the descendent of Martha Carrier, who in 1692 was arrested and accused of witchcraft for the very reasons listed above.   In an age when fear was enough to motivate friends and families to turn against each other, Martha's young daughter Sarah watches helplessly as her mother becomes the target of pointing fingers.  Left to help care for her father and young brothers and then ultimately jailed herself, Sarah's story mirrors her mother's until the final terrifying chapters of the story.

The Salem Witch Trials is not a new subject for historical fiction, but Kent's telling brings it to readers in a new way and manages to make the horror of it real and personal.   As the book opens, Sarah is an old woman writing a letter to her granddaughter about the events of almost sixty years earlier.  Her characters are real and recognizable, from the mean girls who torment Sarah when she comes to town to the kind reverend who visits the condemned prisoners.   She creates nobility in the imprisoned women who try to maintain their dignity in filthy conditions and cruelty in the sheriff's wife who trades extra rations for the prisoner's clothing.

Historical fiction done well is a real pleasure to read in the same way that a finely written fantasy novel can be.  Kent is an author with a talent for world-building--even though this is a world not many of us would want to visit except in the pages of a book.  Here's hoping Kathleen Kent decides to build another world for us in the near future.