Series: Standalone
Format: Kindle, 282 pages
Release Date: October 3, 2023
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Historical / Occult / Paranormal
In seventeenth-century England, a female healer enflames the fury of a witchfinder in this propulsive novel about murder, revenge, and the dangerous power of knowledge.
Mary Fawcett refines the healing recipes she’s inherited from generations of women before her—an uncanny and moral calling to empathize with the sick. When witchfinder Matthew Hopkins arrives in her small village, stoking the fires of hate, he sees not healing but the devil at work. Mary’s benevolent skills have now cast her and her young brother under suspicion of witchery.
Soon, the husband of one of Mary’s patients is found murdered, his body carved with strange symbols. For Hopkins, it’s further evidence of dark arts. When the whispering village turns against her, Mary dares to trust a stranger: an enigmatic alchemist, scarred body and soul, who knows the dead man’s secrets.
As Hopkins’s fervor escalates, Mary must outsmart the devil himself to save her life and the lives of those she loves. Unfolding the true potential of her gifts could make Mary a more empowered adversary than a witchfinder ever feared.
Jennifer Sherman Roberts' The Village Healer's Book of Cures mixes a bit of Historical fiction, with a bit of the occult in a story that is set in the 17th century (1646). In the Village of Bicknance lives Mary Fawcett and her younger brother Tom who is disabled. Mary can ease the pain of the ill or the grief stricken. Mary refines the healing recipes she’s inherited from generations of women before her—an uncanny and moral calling to empathize with the sick.
When witchfinder Matthew Hopkins arrives in her small village, stoking the fires of hate, he sees not healing but the devil at work. Hopkins has a history of claiming to represent Parliament, showing up in a village, and turning neighbors on neighbors until they accuse a village woman of being a witch. But there is one man, Robert Sudbury, who knows all about Hopkins. He knows that the man is a fraud who gets joy from destroying people's lives.
Mary’s benevolent skills have now cast her and her young brother under suspicion of witchery. Soon, the husband of one of Mary’s patients is found murdered, his body carved with strange symbols. For Hopkins, it’s further evidence of dark arts. When the whispering village turns against her, Mary dares to trust a stranger: an enigmatic alchemist, scarred body and soul, who knows the dead man’s secrets.
As Hopkins’s fervor escalates, and her mentor Agnes Shepherd is accused of witchcraft and more, Mary must outsmart the devil himself to save her life and the lives of those she loves. Unfolding the true potential of her gifts could make Mary a more empowered adversary than a witchfinder ever feared. Besides the theme of witchcraft, there is also the obsessions of alchemy that consumed men in this era.
How strange that women healers were instantly suspected but alchemists were treated as men of science. Through Mary's eyes, we see the many contradictions of human nature, the many hypocrisies, and judgments, as well as the kindness and courage. We see the sides of love and betrayal are often aligned, and the space between friend and foe is closer than we would like to admit. This book while fictional, is a good starting point in understanding that the era of the Salem Witch trials destroyed many innocent lives, mostly women who did nothing wrong.
One of the more interesting parts of the book was the numerous recipes that the author writes before each chapter. On top of these recipes, she provides readers with the source of the actual recipes which I appreciated.
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