Set in the 17th century, Blakemore’s powerful debut is about a small Essex town during the Civil War which becomes the scene of a witch hunt. Poor, marginalised women are targeted by those determined to see the Devil’s work in chance misfortunes. Led by the so-called Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins, the persecution develops its own momentum. The narrator, Rebecca West, a young woman struggling to make sense of the world, is rapidly caught up in its web.
