The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow

The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow

Jennet Stearne's father hangs witches for a living in Restoration England. But when she witnesses the unjust and horrifying execution of her beloved aunt Isobel, the precocious child decides to make it her life's mission to bring down the Parliamentary Witchcraft Act. Armed with little save the power of reason, and determined to see justice prevail, Jennet hurls herself into a series of picaresque adventures--traveling from King William's Britain to the fledgling American Colonies to an uncharted island in the Caribbean, braving West Indies pirates, Algonquin Indian captors, the machinations of the Salem Witch Court, and the sensuous love of a young Ben Franklin. For Jennet cannot and must not rest until she has put the last witchfinder out of business.

Gary K. Wolfe is an Emeritus Professor of Humanities at Roosevelt University and the author of Evaporating Genres: Studies on Weird Fiction and Sightings: Reviews 2002-2006, among other works. He has won multiple honors for his critical writing, including the British Science Fiction Society Award, the Science Fiction Research Association's Pilgrim Award, the International Association for the Weird in the Arts' Outstanding Scholarship Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He co-hosts the Hugo-nominated Coode Street Podcast with Jonathan Strahan and writes frequent review essays for Locus magazine and the Chicago Tribune.