Gaskill patiently lays out the deterioration of conditions in Springfield, year by year, bad crop by bad crop.

... a brilliant, unforgettable portrait of a small, beleaguered community in New England in the 17th century. People distanced from us by four centuries, and an almost entirely alien world-view, live again as real, flawed, deeply sympathetic human beings.

... powerfully evocative.

We are fortunate that historian Malcolm Gaskill immersed himself in this remarkable and, until now, largely neglected document. Archived at the New York Public Library, it grounds his enthralling book on a 17th-century witch hunt that, in the author’s deft hands, fascinates as much as the more notorious one that gripped Salem decades later..

... incredibly detailed.

Gaskill combines first-rate historical research with a driving narrative in this captivating study of a married couple accused of witchcraft in 17th-century New England.

... contextually rich.