The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (Hyperion, June 2009, 9781401340902) is a multi-generational historical mystery from first time author Katerine Howe that revolves around one of the darkest events in American history: The Salem Witch Trials.
What sets this book apart isn't the character development or the fact that the setting changes from 1991 Massachusetts to the late 17th century. What sets this book part is that it puts forth a most chilling question; what if one of the women put to death at Salem was actually a witch?
Academic Setting
Connie Goodwin is a burgeoning PhD student at Harvard University in 1991, and the main character of Deliverance Dane. Connie is just beginning the major research part of her PhD in early American history under the great, and demanding, Dr. Manning Chilton. She is set the daunting task of finding an original primary source in which to base her PhD thesis on.
Coincidently, Connie's new age mother asks her to get her grandmother's home in Marblehead, Massachusetts in order, so she can sell it. While there Connie comes across a strange key in a family bible with the name Deliverance Dane written on a piece of paper attached to it. Thus begins the search for Deliverance Dane and the discovery of her mysterious past and prized "physick book" and Connie’s possible PhD topic.
All the while, Connie’s overbearing advisor, Dr. Chilton, is pushing her for answers. It is clear early on that Dr. Chilton may have a hidden agenda. This relationship becomes rather transparent to the reader early on. One of the few flaws in the book.
Time Shifting
Along with Connie's plot line, a series of other plot lines take place in the time of Deliverance Dane and that of her daughter and granddaughter in the late 17th century and early 18th century as they attempt to cope with the accusations of witchcraft against Deliverance and the harm it puts on the family for generations. The emotional development between mother to daughter is endearing, but detracts from the suspense and mystery that makes up the bulk of the novel.
The shifting between storylines, characters, and centuries does spice up the overall nature of the book, but it can get annoying when a particular part in the plot suddenly changes to something less interesting. It becomes tiresome and frustrating as a reader. The only redeeming quality about the time shifting is that each chapter isn’t fifty pages of drudgery, like that found in the Historian.
While the Historian is an excellent book, it does drag on in sections. This is where the Physick Book of Deliverance Dane is different. The clear and consistent changes in time are clear to the plot development and add to the book as a whole rather than detract from this plot driven story.
Author Katherine Howe may wish her novel to be a character driven story with Connie’s burgeoning relationship with a local preservationist by the name of Sam and the constant exchanges between mother and daughter that makes the Gilmore Girls envy. But at the end of the day it is the plot that keeps the reader going.
Connection to Matthew Pearl
Katherine Howe is a first time author, but most of all she is a PhD candidate in American and New England History, and it shows. Ms. Howe knows her history and academic background. She details the pressures of elite academia perfectly. She also has a family connection to the Salem witch trials given that one of her ancestors, Elizabeth Howe, was accused and found guilty of witchcraft during the Salem trials. It is hard to think of anyone more perfect to tell this story.
Author Matthew Pearl even writes a passionate letter to the reader explaining how unique of a writer Katherine Howe is and how much he wishes he had thought of the idea first. While Matthew Pearl is a tremendous author in his own right, this was not a story he could have told. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane may have its faults, but in the end it is still worth the time and effort to read it. We should expect great things from Katherine Howe.
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