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  • Published: 20 March 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241978061
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 480

The Witchfinder's Sister

A haunting historical thriller perfect for fans of The Familiars and The Dutch House




'VIVID AND TERRIFYING' Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

The number of women my brother Matthew killed, so far as I can reckon it, is one hundred and six...

1645. When Alice Hopkins' husband dies in a tragic accident, she returns to the small Essex town of Manningtree, where her brother Matthew still lives.

But home is no longer a place of safety. Matthew has changed, and there are rumours spreading through the town: whispers of witchcraft, and of a great book, in which he is gathering women's names.

To what lengths will Matthew's obsession drive him?
And what choice will Alice make, when she finds herself at the very heart of his plan?

  • Published: 20 March 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241978061
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 480

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Praise for The Witchfinder's Sister

A richly told and utterly compelling tale, with shades of Hilary Mantel

Kate Hamer

'Anyone who liked Cecilia Ekback's Wolf Winter is going to love this. [It's] about tiny braveries and small courage... a real David and Goliath story, but far less straightforward'

Natasha Pulley, author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

A tense, surprising and elegantly-crafted novel

Ian McGuire

Beth Underdown grips us from the outset...at once a feminist parable and an old-fashioned, check-twice-under-the-bed thriller

Patrick Gale

Beth Underdown cleverly creates a compelling atmosphere of dread and claustrophobia... Even from the distance of nearly four hundred years, her Matthew Hopkins is a genuinely frightening monster

Kate Riordan, author of The Girl in the Photograph

'Superb: dark, terrifying and utterly compelling'

Tracy Borman

'A clever, pacey read that blends truth and fiction'

The Times

A chilling, creeping novel with parallels to more modern forms of witch-hunts

Red

A haunting, brooding debut

Psychologies

Chilling, gripping, terrifying and exquisitely written

Susan Barker

'A clever novel with a slow burn of horror'

Guardian

'An accomplished debut novel... this is a powerful, disturbing book, full of drama, with a masterly evocation of England in the 1640s and a sickening final twist'

Sunday Express

'Alice's voice reaches us with admirable clarity and she tells a truly horrifying story with compassion and intelligence. This is a truly accomplished and satisfying début novel'

Adele Geras

A novel for our times. Beth Underdown's The Witchfinder's Sister explores another time and another place to lay bare the visceral horror of what a witch hunt truly is

New York Times Book Review

Entertaining and thought-provoking, with a valuable message for our own times

Washington Post

Atmospheric and filled with foreboding, it's a novel that draws you under its spell

Stylist

THE MOST THRILLING HISTORICAL DEBUT OF 2018 Based on the true story of the infamous witchfinder Matthew Hopkins, with one of the most memorable heroines in recent historical fiction, this haunting novel is perfect for fans of The Miniaturist, Sarah Waters and The Essex Serpent.

From the publisher

'A compelling debut from a gifted storyteller'

Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent

Thumpingly good

Lucy Mangan