The Last Witchfinder

Author/Guide: James Morrow

Why a Booktrail?

1690s: A witch finder is he who searches for heretics. The Salem Witch Trials are about to change everything…

ISBN: 978-0753821534
Genre: Fiction, Folklore, Historical, legal/political

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What you need to know before your trail

Jennet is the daughter of the Witchfinder of Mercia and East Anglia. Whilst her father roams the countryside in search of heretics, Jennet is left behind to be schooled by her aunt Isobel in the New Philosophy principally expounded by Isaac Newton. But her aunt’s style of scientific enquiry soon attracts the attention of the witchfinders. To save her aunt, Jennet travels to Cambridge to seek the help of Newton himself. Isobel is burned at the stake but in her dying moments, begs Jennet to devote her life to overturning the Parliamentary Witchcraft Act.

This is a huge rollercoaster of a novel as Jennet travels to America and witnesses the Salem witch trials; is abducted by Indians; begins an affair with Benjamin Franklin; travels back to England and finally meets the real Newton; is shipwrecked; then ends up back in America where her brother is now the Witchfinder Royal. In a great final showdown between old superstition and new science, Jennet decides to have herself accused of witchcraft in order to disprove its existence.

Locations

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Travel Guide

England Norwich

There are some very spooky places to visit in Norwich today – There are many quaint streets, old buildings, bridges and back alleys which make the city a rich backdrop for ghosts, phantoms and lots of spooky goings on/ Tales of witches and the witching hour makes this the ideal place to visit and to read this book on location!

Salem – Witch Museum

If you haven’t been here, then this museum really is quite something and really captures the time and the mystery of the Salem Witch Trials. Everyone has heard of them but do you really know what they were all about? I didn’t until I walked through the doors and I’ve never forgotten the time spent here and what I learned. The museum tells you that “Twenty innocent people were put to death during the Witch Hysteria of 1692. History made them famous…we make them real!” And I tell you something, they do. Amazing exhibits and a real immersive experience. Shocking how women were treated.

The Witch House is another must. What an experience that is! Really helps to put this and other books about the trials into perspective and to find out even more about that time.