England, 1650. When Jane’s lover, Tom, returns from the navy to find her unhappily married to his betrayer, Jane is caught in an impossible situation.
Still reeling from the loss of her mother at the hands of the Scottish witchfinder, Jane has no choice but to continue her dangerous work as a healer while keeping her young daughter safe.
But as Tom searches for a way for him and Jane to be together, the witchfinder is still at large. Filled with vengeance, John Sharpe will stop at nothing in his quest to rid Scotland and England of the scourge of witchcraft.
The Newcastle Witch Trials trilogy was inspired by a little-known English witch hunt, where fifteen women and one man were hanged for witchcraft on a single day in August 1650.
Helen Steadman mostly writes biographical historical fiction (think herbs, healing, witch trials, swords, shipwrecks and lighthouses) set in the north east of England. So far, she’s written the Newcastle Witch Trials Trilogy (Widdershins, Sunwise and Solstice), The Running Wolf (about the Shotley Bridge swordmakers) and Grace (about Grace Darling, the Northumbrian lighthouse keeper’s daughter).
And then — because why not — there’s God of Fire set on Mount Olympus, which is absolutely nowhere near the north east of England. (A sequel featuring Aphrodite is in hand.)