Do you believe in the devil? Not so long ago I too would have scoffed. Now - now I am not so sure.' 1645. Alice Hopkins returns in disgrace, husbandless and pregnant, to her brother Matthew's house in the small Essex town of Manningtree. When she left, Matthew was an awkward boy, bullied for the scars that disfigure his face. But the brother Alice has come back to is like a different person. Now Matthew has powerful friends, and mysterious business that keeps him out late into the night. Then the rumours begin- whispers of witchcraft, and of a great book, in which Matthew is gathering women's names. Just how far will Matthew's obsession drive him? And what choice will Alice make, when she finds herself at the very heart of his plan?
Author Biography
Beth Underdown lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Manchester. Her first novel, The Witchfinder's Sister, is based on the life of the 1640s witchfinder Matthew Hopkins. Beth's interest in seventeenth-century England was sparked by the work of her great-uncle David Underdown, one of that period's foremost historians. She came across a brief mention of Matthew Hopkins while reading a book about midwifery, sparking an interest which turned into an all-consuming hunt for the elusive truth about this infamous killer.
