Underdown paints a portrait of a chilling reality, more so because of how unremarkable she makes Matthew Hopkins's witch hunts seem. I don't mean unremarkable in the sense that her narrative is boring, but rather that the people of this English region, spread far apart with limited 17th century communication, so easily give way to Matthew's hunt as if he is doing an unremarkable thing. Underdown's creation of his sister Alice (an invention but based on the reality of his having unrecorded siblings) was an effective way to explore his fatal proceedings against the women of Essex from the point of view of someone who would have an idea of his inner workings but also be threatened by his mania. A lot happens "off page" in this book, because Matthew is away doing his business while Alice is at home, which gives the reader the feeling that a woman in 17th century England must have had - her world is very small and the doings of the larger world seem very far away. It was a very effective narrative strategy. Because of this, it almost seems like a very slowly-paced domestic tale for the reader of that type of historical fiction, but I think it would satisfy those and other readers. I enjoyed it all, and I enjoyed the speculative twist of the ending. It's been too long since I've read a good pile of historical fiction!

The fine print: received ARC from NetGalley.