You see, unlike the others, Deliverance Dane really is a witch, and she attributes the source of her power to God.
This book was published as mainstream fiction, yet I believe it qualifies as mythopoeic fantasy and could be considered for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. Unable to accept this, the father blames Deliverance, which ultimately lands her a spot in the Salem witch trials. She tells the grieving father, a widower, that the girl was bewitched. Deliverance is unable to save her, and this is the origin of all her troubles. We first meet Deliverance in the prologue in 1681 where she has been called to the bedside of a dying five-year-old girl. Woven through Connie’s stories are excerpts from Deliverance Dane’s life and that of her daughter, Mercy. If Connie was successful in her research, finding a previously unknown victim of the hysteria of the Salem witch trials and a new primary source, she would have a dissertation worthy of the best scholars of early America. Digging through town records, she comes to the conclusion that not only was Deliverance Dane the name of a woman, she was an undocumented “Salem witch.” In addition, Deliverance was some sort of “cunning woman,” a midwife/wise woman who healed her neighbors as best she could, guided in her craft by a book. The Puritans were fond of names based on virtues. On the paper is written two words: Deliverance Dane.Ĭonsulting with her doctoral advisor, Connie decides that it must be a name. Hollow, it contains a small slip of paper which she carefully extracts. Out of the Bible has dropped an antique key. Thumbing through it, she drops it as her hand begins to feel hot and strange. In the midst of her cleaning, she takes out an ancient family Bible. The house is in the little town, Marblehead, Massachusetts, and hasn’t been occupied since her grandmother died, twenty years earlier. Thus she is annoyed when her flaky mother, Grace, asks her to spend time cleaning up the old family home, preparing it for sale. She is specializing in the early colonial period and needs to come up with a topic for her dissertation after completing her oral exams. candidate at prestigious Harvard University in 1991. It was only natural that she conceived a novel which incorporates these two aspects of herself.Ĭonnie Goodwin is a Ph.D. Katherine Howe, the author of this book, is descended from two accused Salem witches and is working on her Ph.D.
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