Friday, April 16, 2010

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

This was a great read. It's set in New England in both the late 1600's and 1991.

The story in today's world is about a woman from New England who is entering the doctoral program at Harvard University in American Colonial History. Through a series of circumstances, she begins research to locate evidence of an historical person, Deliverance Dane, and then a book that had belonged to Deliverance. She soon determines that Deliverance was declared a witch during the Salem witch trials but her name had not previously been known.

Throughout the book the author bounces between the lives of Deliverance Dane and her progeny and the modern world. She uses historical fact regarding the Salem Witch Trials and life during the era and weaves her fictional characters into the story.

It was an intriguing book that was fun to read and had suspense, mystery, a bit of romance as well as lots of information about life in Colonial New England especially the life that women would have led.

This book was similar to another I read last year, The Heretics Daughter by Kathleen Kent but I think this one had more suspense than the other. I highly recommend this book (as well as the other book) to anyone who enjoys historical novels.

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