Image via WikipediaThe Physick Book of Deliverance Dane is the debut novel by author and historian Katherine Howe.First novels can sometimes be difficult to read, and I must admit that the first few chapters of this book had me ready to give up.
The author is an historian, and intimately familiar with the history of the Salem Witch Trials - and should be - she is a descendant of two of the accused.
So it's not at all surprising that the novel starts in the Massachusetts of 1681. For those of us not familiar with this time and place however, the first chapter can be daunting.
Next we are introduced to Connie Goodwin, a young historian with a flaky mom who is working on her doctoral thesis at Harvard.
Our first impressions of Connie are not at all favorable; she seems ponderous, dull, staid and unimaginative. Stick with her though; Connie has a secret that even she doesn't know.
After several chapters of introductory material, the story finally begins. Connie's mom, now living in the southwest, asks her daughter to spend the summer cleaning and selling her grandparent's old house near Salem.
As she starts to clean the old home up, she finds something rather odd in an old Bible; an ancient key, with a small parchment scroll hidden inside with the name Deliverance Dane written on it.
Connie is intrigued and decides to make discovering Deliverance Dane's life story the subject of her dissertation. As she finds out more about Deliverance, and herself, I found myself pulled deeply into this compelling story (and I even got used to the forays back to the Salem of centuries past).
It turns out that someone else is surreptitiously pushing Connie to figure out the secrets of Deliverance Dane and the ending of this story leaves nothing to be desired, except for a brief moment of horror (which I won't share for fear of spoiling it) that is resolved at the very end.
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane is a great read. If you can wade through those first few dense chapters, you'll be amply rewarded.
