Title: Hour of the Witch
Author: Chris Bohjalian
Publication: January 25, 2022
Publisher: Vintage
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 496
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SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
Boston, 1662. Mary Deerfield is twenty-four years old. Her skin is porcelain, her eyes delft blue, and in England she might have had many suitors. But here in the New World, amid this community of saints, Mary is the second wife of Thomas Deerfield, a man as cruel as he is powerful. When Thomas, prone to drunken rage, drives a three-tined fork into the back of Mary’s hand, she resolves that she must divorce him to save her life. But in a world where every neighbor is watching for signs of the devil, a woman like Mary–a woman who harbors secret desires and finds it difficult to tolerate the brazen hypocrisy of so many men in the colony–soon finds herself the object of suspicion and rumor. When tainted objects are discovered buried in Mary’s garden, when a boy she has treated with herbs and simples dies, and when their servant girl runs screaming in fright from her home, Mary must fight to not only escape her marriage, but also the gallows. A twisting, tightly plotted thriller from one of our greatest storytellers, Hour of the Witch is a timely and terrifying novel of socially sanctioned brutality and the original American witch hunt.
REVIEW:
I admit, and I admit it freely…. I have only purchased this authors book purely on the fact that they made The Flight Attendant into a TV series starring Kaley Cuoco. I loved her in the Big Bang Theory, so naturally I assumed I would like this series, because who doesn’t love a good mystery. However, I have not watched the series and I have not read the book yet. I didn’t even pick this book for myself, I let my new significant other pick it for me because I am the worst at deciding what to read. So without further ado….
Mary is married to the town miller. She moved here,Boston, when she was in her late teens with her parents from England. She attempts to divorce him when he stabs her in the hand with a fork while trying to prove that she is not a witch. The Elders deny her divorce and she is forced to go back to him. She is then put on trial for witchcraft because she finds buried forks in her yard and a mark of the devil in her house by the door. The events that happen after this accusation is one for the books. This book was so good. I have always been interested in the witch trials in Boston/Salem and actually have several non-fiction books about them but have not had the chance. Maybe that will be my fall/halloween goal to read more witchy books.
The things that this book touches on are powerful. A woman trying to leave her husband because he repeatedly abuses her both physically and verbally. The fact that she has to go in front of a group of men and present to them why she is asking for divorce just for it to be denied and is forced to go back to him. The complete stripping of her in the jail while she is being held for witchcraft just to see if she has the mark of the devil. Every nook and cranny is examined. I thank the heavens that they made to a local midwife to check her instead of a man I guess was nice (insert sarcasm). Just talking to the wrong people can be used against her. I loved this book. It was sweeping and gripping. It held my attention from start to finish. I will be reading more by this author soon.
