In 17th-century England, a female healer inflames 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. 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.
Author Jennifer Sherman Roberts holds a PhD in Renaissance literature from the University of Minnesota. She became interested in early modern recipes and recipe books as she researched the medicinal properties of folk cures. She has written about early modern recipes on the academic blog The Recipes Project, and she has worked with Oregon Humanities facilitating conversation projects about the historical roots and cultural implications of the recipe genre. She is also a fierce library advocate, occasional knitter, and aspiring mead maker who lives in southern Oregon, where the mountains are tall, the lakes crystal clear, and the beer hoppy.
Held 7 to 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 13.
