“A gripping, well-told story of faith and truth.” —Khaled Hosseini, bestselling author of The Kite Runner “A disturbingly effective historical novel.” —Boston Globe “Beautifully written, nary a word out of place, and with a few moments that throw you beyond—the way good books do ... deeply satisfying.” —San Francisco Chronicle A San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book of 2007 In 1507, when a severe famine strikes a small town in Germany, a friar arrives from a large city, claiming that the town is under the spell of witches in league with the devil. He brings with him a book called the Malleus Maleficarum—“The Witch’s Hammer”—a guide to gaining confessions of witchcraft, and promises to identify the guilty woman who has brought God’s anger upon the town, burn her, and restore bounty. Güde Müller suffers stark and frightening visions—recently she has seen things that defy explanation. No one in the village know this, and Güde herself worries that perhaps her mind has begun to wander—certainly she has outlived all but one of her peers in Tierkinddorf. Yet of one thing she is absolutely certain: She has become an object of scorn and a burden to her son’s wife. In these desperate times her daughter-in-law would prefer one less hungry mouth at the family table. As the friar turns his eye on each member of the tiny community, Güde dreads what her daughter-in-law might say to win his favor. Then one terrible night Güde follows an unearthly voice and the scent of charred meat into the snow-filled woods. Come morning, she no longer knows if the horror she witnessed was real or imagined. She only knows that if the friar hears of it, she may be damned in this life as well as the next. The Witch’s Trinity beautifully illuminates a dark period of history; it is vividly imagined, elegantly written, haunting, and unforgettable.

Witch... Some words can kill Germany, 1507. In a time when famine is rife and panic spreading, people resort to desperate measures in order to survive. When a visiting friar suggests that witchcraft is to blame for their failing crops, Irmeltrud sees it as an opportunity to get rid of her burdensome mother-in-law, Güde. Frustrated with having to feed the old woman who brings nothing to the table, she is quick to point the dreaded finger of suspicion. Güde has three days to clear her name, or be led to the stake . . .

One day, I'm nobody. The next, I'm a witch. And I've caught the attention of three smoking hot demons.I left home to start over, to escape a world I never fit in. I soon learned that my past was a lie. My parents suppressed my magical abilities and tried to make me forget my true nature. They almost succeeded. Now my real grandmother is back in my life and teaching me the craft of our people. After living my whole life without magic, I feel like a blind woman seeing for the first time. But three devilishly handsome men are saying there's more to my story. I see them everywhere, even in my dreams which are starting to feel like distant memories. They say I'm not an ordinary witch. My grandmother says not to trust them. Who do I believe? 18+ reverse haremSome scenes may be triggering to some readers

Were witches real in the Middle Ages? This handbook on witchcraft, first published in 1628, claims to expose the entire practice and profession of witchcraft. Was used as support in the accusation of witches at the time, although we can recognize much of it today as being paranoid superstition by religious authorities. The book is valuable because it allows one to view the extreme superstition surrounding witchcraft at the time, and to better understand the degree of persecution that resulted.

The Bram Stoker Award-winning author brings a legendary murder mystery to life in this “fascinating, mesmerizing [and] darkly atmospheric” thriller (Diana Gabaldon). In The Murderer’s Maid, acclaimed author Erika Mailman offering a fresh perspective on the Lizzie Borden murders through the stories of two women more than a century apart. In the 1890s, Irish immigrant Bridget Sullivan works as a maid in the Borden household. Trapped by her servitude, she fears for her own safety as she watches the family’s volatile tensions build toward an explosion of violence. In 2016, a Mexican-American woman works a menial job under an assumed name, all to stay one step ahead of the men who want to kill her. The danger Felicita faces is rooted in her family’s deadly past. But she has no idea how far back it truly goes...to a notorious 19th century crime. Winner of the IPPY Gold Medal Award and National Indie Excellence Award

Fiction. Looking for a better life, Nora Simms sails from the East Coast to gold rush San Francisco with a plan for success: to strike it rich by trading on her good looks. But when a string of murders claims several of her fellow "women of ill fame," Nora grows uneasy with how closely linked all of the victims are to her. Even her rise to the top of her profession and a move to the fashionable part of town don't shelter her from the danger, and she must distinguish friend from foe in a race to discover the identity of the killer. "WOMAN OF ILL FAME deftly sidesteps all the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold clichA[a¬As you think you see coming as it follows its heroine through the muddy two-fisted brawl that was gold rush San Francisco. The book starts with a bang, and for me it never lets up; I enjoyed the hell out of it"--Tamim Ansary

Set in a fantasy world of hungry goblins, powerful witches and human criminals, Half-Witch follows the unlikely friendship between Lizbet and the unpleasant sarcastic witch girl Strix on a twisted journey to rescue her father from prison. In the world in which Lizbet Lenz lives, the sun still goes around the earth, God speaks directly to his worshippers, goblins haunt every cellar and witches lurk in the forests. Disaster strikes when Lizbet’s father Gerhard, a charming scoundrel, is thrown into a dungeon by the tyrant Hengest Wolftrow. To free him, Lizbet must cross the Montagnes du Monde, globe-girdling mountains that reach to the sky, a journey no one has ever survived, and retrieve a mysterious book. Lizbet is desperate, and the only one who can help her is the unbearable witch girl Strix. As the two girls journey through the mountains and into the lands of wonder beyond, Lizbet discovers—to her horror—that Strix’s magic is turning Lizbet into a witch, too. All while, a revolution in Heaven is brewing!