The Last Witchfinder

Jennet Stearne grows up in Restoration England, where her father earns his living by hanging witches. When she watches the execution of her aunt Isobel, a death she sees as unjust and horrifying, the clever child sets herself a goal: to bring down the Parliamentary Witchcraft Act.

Her only weapon is reason. Jennet pursues her cause through a string of picaresque adventures that carry her from Britain in the reign of King William to the young American Colonies, and on to an uncharted island in the Caribbean.

Along the way she faces pirates in the West Indies, captors from the Algonquin, and the machinations of the Salem Witch Court. She also meets a young Ben Franklin, and a sensual love grows between them.

The book is a historical novel with an episodic, travelling structure, following one determined heroine across oceans and decades. Its tone is that of an adventure driven by a moral argument, with danger at nearly every stop. Jennet will not rest until the last witchfinder is out of business, and the Witchcraft Act is the law she means to end.