The Last Witchfinder (Morrow, James) 2006

The Last Witchfinder is historical fiction that has been lovingly crafted to fit as neatly as possible within its timeline while simultaneously outraging its credibility with overly abundant historical name-dropping.  I wish that Jennet felt more like an exceptional woman of the 16- and 1700's and less like a 21st century woman dropped into the wrong century and desperately trying to remember her 'twills and 'steeths, and wish that she weren't so obviously Right and her enemies so obviously Wrong within the context of the century in which it's written.  *We* all know that the Salem Witch Trials were a travesty, but the fear of witches may have been very real to the average person of the time period in which the book is written, and yet we never get their perspective, only the perspective of the 21st-century Jennet and other like-minded individuals.  In the end, the real problem is with the eponymous "last witchfinder", Jennet's brother Dunstan.  His transformation from promising artist to Witchfinder Royal should be compelling, but instead it's given scant attention, and we are to believe that this admittedly dull, but not evil or insane, boy takes up his father's mantle partly as a tribute to his father's memory and partly out of attraction to Abigail Williams (leader of the hysterical girls who called out witches at the Salem trials).  Give us some insight into Dunstan's mind!