The Life & Times of Sarah Good, Accused Witch

Wagner-Wright’s historical novel chronicles the origins of the 17th-century Salem Witch Trials.

It is October 1672, months after the death of Sarah Solart’s father and the official disposition of his estate, but disputes over the Solart holdings will continue for years to come. The cantankerous men of Salem, Massachusetts, celebrate auspicious news: The main church in Salem Town has granted their village permission to form its own church; the residents may now build their own meeting house and hire their own minister (the new church will not achieve independence until the new minister is fully ordained). The townspeople hire Reverend James Bayley from Newbury, Massachusetts, a severe man who arrives with his new bride, Mary Carr Bayley, and her younger sister, Ann Carr. Although Ann is still a child, she catches the eye of 22-year-old Thomas (Tom) Putnam, the Younger, eldest son and heir apparent of Deacon Putnam, a wealthy and politically influential village elder. In the years that follow, Tom and Ann marry, and their daughter, Ann, the Younger, will be among the first of the young girls to accuse Sarah of witchcraft. Wagner-Wright vividly depicts a complex, occasionally confusing community of characters who vie for political standing, nurse grudges over denied anticipated inheritances, and are consumed by religious superstition and fervor. Her use of period phraseology (“I can scarcely believe what I’m about to tell ye, but ’tis true”) and descriptions of social customs convey the socially suffocating atmosphere to which women were subjected. The early scenes of the romance between Ann and Tom are charming, and an ample supply of historically intriguing details keeps the narrative moving. When the narrative enters the 1690s, it becomes a chilling and infuriating tale of horror as adolescent girls feed upon each other’s hallucinations and manifest bizarre physical contortions in a frightening display of group hysteria.

Disturbing and historically rich.