A young Puritan woman-faithful, resourceful, but afraid of the demons that dog her soul-plots her escape from a violent marriage in this riveting and propulsive novel of historical suspense from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant.
Boston, 1662. Mary Deerfield is twenty-four-years-old. Her skin is porcelain, her eyes delft blue, and in England she might have had many suitors. But here in the New World, amid this community of saints, Mary is the second wife of Thomas Deerfield, a man as cruel as he is powerful. When Thomas, prone to drunken rage, drives a three-tined fork into the back of Mary's hand, she resolves that she must divorce him to save her life. But in a world where every neighbor is watching for signs of the devil, a woman like Mary-a woman who harbors secret desires and finds it difficult to tolerate the brazen hypocrisy of so many men in the colony-soon becomes herself the object of suspicion and rumor. When tainted objects are discovered buried in Mary's garden, when a boy she has treated with herbs and simples dies, and when their servant girl runs screaming in fright from her home, Mary must fight to not only escape her marriage, but also the gallows.
A twisting, tightly plotted novel of historical suspense from one of our greatest storytellers, Hour of the Witch is a timely and terrifying story of socially sanctioned brutality and the original American witch hunt.
CHRIS BOHJALIAN is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of twenty-two books, including The Red Lotus, Midwives, and The Flight Attendant, which is an HBO Max limited series starring Kaley Cuoco. His other books include The Guest Room; Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands; The Sandcastle Girls; Skeletons at the Feast; and The Double Bind. His novels Secrets of Eden, Midwives, and Past the Bleachers were made into movies, and his work has been translated into more than thirty-five languages. He is also a playwright (Wingspan and Midwives). He lives in Vermont and can be found at chrisbohjalian.com or on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Litsy, and Goodreads, @chrisbohjalian.
"Hour of the Witch is historical fiction at its best... Insightful and empathetic... Thick with details as chowder is with clams... handled with great skill and delicacy. The book is a thriller in structure, and a real page-turner, the ending both unexpected and satisfying." - Diana Gabaldon, The Washington Post
"Bohjalian does an admirable job of bringing his numerous players to life in all their complexity... Hour of the Witch--part courtroom thriller, part psychological suspense novel--holds a reader's rapt attention all the way to its startling conclusion." - Tom Nolan , Wall Street Journal
"[A] knotty dilemma lies at the heart of what is, at a deeper level, a novel of psychological suspense. Can one know if one is, indeed, damned?...In Bohjalian's deft portrayal, Mary chafes at her societal and marital confines...[Shows] how timeless some battles - and some heroines - are." - Clea Simon, Boston Globe
"A rich and terrifying story... A grab-you-by-the-throat suspense read that both historical fiction fans and thriller lovers will devour." - Real Simple
"No. 1 New York Times bestselling author and literary legend Chris Bohjalian returns with a story about Mary Deerfield, a suspected witch in 1662 Boston who, while wrestling with her own internal demons and disastrous marriage, raises suspicion that the demons aren't just in her own mind." - Zibby Owens, Good Morning America
"Absolutely riveting historical fiction that reads like the most pageturning of thrillers, driven by its compelling heroine Mary Deerfield, a young wife who finds the physical and moral courage to stand up for herself in a time when women could be hung as witches... Hour of the Witch is a woman's story, a romance, a history lesson, and a legal thriller, all of a piece. I haven't read a novel like it in recent memory, and I doubt that I will for years to come." - Lisa Scottoline
"A rich and terrifying story... Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian is a grab-you-by-the-throat suspense read that both historical fiction fans and thriller lovers will devour." - Real Simple
