What I'm Reading Wednesday: Hour of the Witch

I've been a fan of Chris Bohjalian for years. My favorites among his works include Midwives  (which was my introduction to this author),  The Sandcastle Girls, and The Night Strangers. So, when I saw that he was releasing a new novel of historical fiction, I couldn't wait to read it! 

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 finds 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 thriller from one of our greatest storytellers, Hour of the Witch is a timely and terrifying novel of socially sanctioned brutality and the original American witch hunt. (description  via GoodReads )

Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian | Goodreads

After the first part of the book seemed to really drag, I found myself wondering if I was going to be disappointed in this novel.  Fortunately, it started picking up after that; and eventually led to a few nights of staying up too late reading to see what would happen next.  Even thought I sort of figured out what might be going on behind the scenes, there were plenty of  twists and turns that kept me guessing The ending was something less than I had hoped for, it felt a little too convenient - but that didn't distract from my overall enjoyment of the story. 

What are you reading this week?