By Paul Carrier
It may not be a true den of iniquity. But York, England, has its share of vice — real and imagined — in historian Sam Thomas’ mysteries, which are set in that city in the 1640s.
Puritan reformers were obsessed with ridding the city of prostitutes In The Harlot’s Tale, the second entry in this series. In The Witch Hunter's Tale, a riveting follow-up that takes place a short time later, they turn their attention to fighting witchcraft.
Superstition remains a powerful force in England during the Civil War. Even the few voices of moderation and sensibility, led by wealthy midwife Bridget Hodgson, believe in witches. Bridget (a character inspired by a real 17th-century York midwife by the same name) simply hopes to assure that innocent people are not unfairly targeted in a megalomaniac’s misguided search for Satan’s minions.
“It was not that I, or any of us for that matter, objected to the hanging of a witch,” Bridget tells readers after she witnesses the execution of Hester Jackson, an elderly woman whose curse is blamed for the death of a mother and her child. “It is one thing to believe in the reality of witchcraft. It is another to see a neighbor hanged for the crime.”
From Bridget’s perspective, things are not going at all well in York, where the armies of Parliament have wrested control from royalists loyal to King Charles I. The Parliamentarians, fueled by political ambition and Puritan fanaticism, are rounding up accused witches by the dozen. The mania spreads to the countryside, and in no time the city’s jails overflow with despised and vulnerable women.
Even some people who fear witches can see that things are moving too far too fast. Bridget and her deputy, Martha Hawkins, hope to rein in the madness, but the odds are not in their favor.
George Breary, their ally on the City Council, is killed in a dark alley, and Bridget’s innocent nephew Will Hodgson is charged with the murder. The councilman who is leading the charge against suspected witches, Bridget’s power-mad nephew Joseph Hodgson, allies himself with disgraced midwife Rebecca Hooke, Bridget’s nemesis. Even as Bridget and Martha search for Breary’s killer, Bridget has good reason to fear that the hysteria sweeping through York may ensnare her and her loved ones.
Americans associate witchcraft with the Salem trials of the late 17th century, but witch hunts had a dark history in Europe before they reached our shores. Thomas explains in an author's note that he modeled the novel’s frenzy on the fact that some 300 witches were executed in England between 1644 and 1646.
In The Witch Hunter’s Tale, virtually anyone can accuse anyone else of practicing witchcraft, with potentially deadly results. When Lucy Pierce, a pregnant woman under Bridget’s care, gives birth to a stillborn child, her "gossips" (friends) insist that Mother Lee, a malevolent neighborhood woman, bewitched the baby. Once she’s under arrest, Mother Lee doesn’t help her cause. In fact, she seals her fate by proclaiming that she cast a spell on Lucy. In a world where the absurd is credible, some accused witches actually believe in their own guilt.
Rebecca has won the all-powerful job of searching each accused woman for a “witch’s teat,” from which her “imp” would suck. Such fanciful notions are laughable to us, but in The Witch Hunter’s Tale, they can mean the difference between life and death. Bridget believes Rebecca is claiming to find the “devil’s mark” on innocent women, out of vengeance against her foes or to help Joseph solidify his hold on power by promoting himself as the city’s savior. When Rebecca makes a veiled threat to charge Bridget’s young, adopted daughter with witchcraft, tragedy may be only a knock away from Bridget’s door.
So Bridget’s tasks mount from one day to the next, until they seem insurmountable. She is determined to find Breary’s killer, free Will before he can be tried and hanged by a kangaroo court, prevent the witch hunt from spiraling completely out of control, and protect her own family from ruthless zealots who would stop at nothing to eliminate their enemies.
Just as Bridget’s and Martha’s prospects seem hopeless and everything they hold dear is on the verge of slipping away, this fast-paced, satisfying mystery takes a dramatic turn. I found myself racing through the final chapters to learn how Bridget would handle a painful moral dilemma that would shape the city's future, and her own. It would be gratifying to learn that Thomas plans to have these two resourceful sleuths continue their adventures in a fourth Midwife Mystery. A reader can only hope so.
