The Vanishing Witch

by Karen Maitland

First published 2014

Amazon

4.1(1,157)

Lincoln, 1380. Wealthy wool merchant Robert of Bassingham is drawn to Catlin, a recently arrived widow who offers help while his wife is gravely ill. Catlin and her two children soon enter his household, but a succession of disturbing deaths and unexplained events turns fascination into suspicion and gives new life to rumours of witchcraft.

Outside the household, resentment over taxation and royal government is building towards the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. Maitland links domestic manipulation and supernatural uncertainty with a society under political strain, as Robert and those around him try to understand which dangers are human, which are imagined and which may not have a rational explanation.