The Village Healer’s Book of Cures
£2.99
In seventeenth-century England, a female healer enflames 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, his body carved with strange symbols. 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.
As Hopkins’s fervor escalates, Mary must outsmart the devil himself to save her life and the lives of those she loves. Unfolding the true potential of her gifts could make Mary a more empowered adversary than a witchfinder ever feared.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Lake Union Publishing (1 Nov. 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 2907 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 282 pages |
| Page numbers source ISBN | 1662511760 |
by Mamatigress
I liked the integration of fact and fiction. The author did their research well and accessed a group who collect these old ‘remedies/recipes’ and keep them together as a collection.
For the readers interest, several of these recipes are listed at the end of the book, and whilst many make me cringe, it’s amazing how people managed to discover that plants could heal particular ailnents.
And in some ways, you can appreciate why they were sometimes thought of as witches because of some of the very strange recipes they used, and also back in the 17th century, many thought it was God’s will whether you were sick or not and classed healers as interfering with that will.
The author manages to describe the villagers fear of the witch-finder and how friends and relatives can easily turn against one another, if they thought it would keep the attention away from themselves.
The author also manages to capture the way these cruel ‘witch-finders’ got their results/confessions of witch craft from their victims. It’s no wonder they got a reputation of being successful, and making a good living at the expense of others!
It was a good, easy read, and a book that will stick in my mind because of the fictionalised account of what happened in that era to many innocent women throughout the world, and occasionally a few men were also accused, too.
Well worth a read if you like historical novels, with a touch of romance thrown in for good measure.
by Jeanette Ball
At first I thought this was going to be yet another tale of an innocent woman being persecuted as a witch but I was pleasantly surprised by all the twists and turns. I did wonder about the heroine, Mary, spending so much time alone with a man with never a frown from anyone among her friends and neighbours. The story was set in the middle ages after all. Overall, this was an enjoyable read and quite well written.
by Kindle Customer
It didn’t take long to get to know the characters and I liked the way the relationships between them developed. I would like to read more about Mary and Tom, especially to find out if Greedyguts stayed with them.
by Sarah Brown
I liked this book but I didn’t love it because I didn’t feel it was too dissimilar to historical books centred on witchcraft – it felt too much like other plots. Furthermore, when the plot moved to London, I lost interest: the story was becoming more of a historical mystery rather than the representation of the witch trials in England.
For me, the story was trying to go into too many different directions. I really enjoyed the witchcraft element to the plot and think the writer could have capitalised on this further; I was less committed to the theme of alchemy and wanted instead to see how Mary would escape persecution in the village… rather than just running away. Indeed, Roberts describes a sort of mystical power that Mary has when she contacts another person, focussing in a particular way. This was an intriguing part of the story and I wish this had been elaborated on. The time spent in London felt like a mystery and I instead wanted to see conflict between Mary, the locals and the witch hunter.
There were some surprising aspects to the story, especially towards the end. Although I enjoyed Roberts’ portrayal of the witch hunts, it didn’t feel remarkably different to stories I have read in the past. The theme of alchemy did diversify the narrative a bit but I didn’t want this part of the plot because I thought it detracted from Mary’s story.
The mysterious markings on bodies that are presented in the story added a chilling element to the narrative. Combined with the book of cures, I thought this added a more sinister aspect to the story and, with Matthew Hopkins sniffing around Mary’s village, I felt this increased the tension and fear. Knowing that Mary cannot venture too far without being accused of witchcraft, I sympathised with the isolation that came when her closest friend is arrested. Still, removing the story to London gave a different angle to the plot and this is where I thought the pace of the narrative slowed and there was less intrigue about witchcraft.
This book is a bit of witchcraft, a bit of alchemy and a bit of a mystery, all thrown together into one cooking pot. I liked Mary as a character but wanted the writer to expand on her mystical connections to others that help with her healing process. It was well-written but I don’t think the plot was too original surrounding the witch trials, before it veered off in a completely unexpected direction.
by Kez
Mary Fawcett is a healer, but this is 1646 and skills like that, especially if you’re female, can be dangerous, more so as Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins is in town. Add to that a murder with the body carved with strange symbols and Hopkins soon suspects the dark arts are at work.
The Village Healers Book of Cures is a story of witchcraft, alchemy, murder, revenge, ignorance and the dangerous power of knowledge. Jennifer Sherman Roberts enhances her story by including authentic 17th century recipes for cures at the beginning of each chapter.
There is a lot of potential here for a good historical novel concerning witchcraft and it’s obvious from the notes at the end that Jennifer has put a lot of research into this. It is set in the right period for that, it mentions the Pendle witch trials and in Matthew Hopkins it has the perfect antagonist. However I found it a little bland. One of the main reasons for this was the characters, they lack depth, even Mary Fawcett is a tad boring and predictable, and as for Matthew Hopkins he comes across as the type of stereotypical villain the great Victorian melodramatic actor Todd Slaughter might have revelled in playing. The plot line does have a few twists and turns although some of the revelations seemed a bit too easily achieved. As well as a novel about witchcraft and alchemy it also attempts to be a bit of a detective/mystery novel although it doesn’t take a lot of detection to solve the mysteries. An example of this is a scene where Mary follows a man but learns nothing much of substance, however this man turns up a few pages later and tells her everything he was doing anyway.
In conclusion it is an easy read and despite my criticisms it does hold enough interest to entertain. The inclusion of the cures recipes adds interest and are enhanced further by the notes at the end.