5 Historical Fiction Books That Will Haunt You

Witch Trials, Power, and the Women Who Refused to Burn

There’s something about October that makes me crave a story with a little shadow in it… especially when it’s rooted in history. The witch trials of Europe and early America are so much more than just tales of superstition. They tell bring to light the stories were reflections of fear, power, and the penalty of what happens when women step too far outside the lines society draws for them.

I love finding historical fiction that brings these forgotten women to life. These books are haunting not because of ghosts and shades of the supernatural, but because of what really happened. These novels remind us that “witch” was often just another word for woman with a voice. And sometimes history is terrifying.

If you’re in the mood for something atmospheric, eerie, and full of history, here are a few books to add to your list this season…

Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian

A young Puritan woman—faithful, resourceful, but afraid of the demons that dog her soul—plots her escape from a violent marriage in this riveting and propulsive novel of historical suspense.

Boston, 1662. Mary Deerfield is twenty-four-years-old. Her skin is porcelain, her eyes delft blue, and in England she might have had many suitors. But here in the New World, amid this community of saints, Mary is the second wife of Thomas Deerfield, a man as cruel as he is powerful. When Thomas, prone to drunken rage, drives a three-tined fork into the back of Mary’s hand, she resolves that she must divorce him to save her life.

But in a world where every neighbor is watching for signs of the devil, a woman like Mary—a woman who harbors secret desires and finds it difficult to tolerate the brazen hypocrisy of so many men in the colony—soon becomes herself the object of suspicion and rumor. When tainted objects are discovered buried in Mary’s garden, when a boy she has treated with herbs and simples dies, and when their servant girl runs screaming in fright from her home, Mary must fight to not only escape her marriage, but also the gallows.

A twisting, tightly plotted novel of historical suspense from one of our greatest storytellers, Hour of the Witch is a timely and terrifying story of socially sanctioned brutality and the original American witch hunt.

The First Witch of Boston by Samantha Silvas

A gripping and intimate novel based on the true story of Margaret Jones, the first woman to be found guilty of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1646. Thomas and Margaret Jones arrive from England to build a life in the New World. Though of differing temperaments, cautious Thomas and fiery Margaret, a healer, are bound by a love that has lasted decades. With a child on the way, their new beginning promises only blessings.

But in this austere Puritan community, comely faces hide malicious intent. Wrong moves or words are met with suspicion, and Margaret’s bold and unguarded nature draws scorn. Soon, Margaret is mistrusted as more cunning woman than kind caregiver. And when personal tragedies, religious hysteria, and wariness of the unknown turn most against her, even the devotion Margaret and her husband share is at risk.

Inspired by actual diary entries and court records, The First Witch of Boston is at once the riveting story of a woman unjustly accused and a love story set amid the political and social turmoil of both Old and New England. Harrowing, and with a deep understanding of the human heart, history is brilliantly imagined.

The Devil’s Glove by Lucretia Grindle

Northern New England, summer, 1688.
Salem started here.

A suspicious death. A rumor of war. Whispers of witchcraft.

Perched on the brink of disaster, Resolve Hammond and her mother, Deliverance, struggle to survive in their isolated coastal village. They’re known as healers taught by the local tribes - and suspected of witchcraft by the local villagers.

Their precarious existence becomes even more chaotic when summoned to tend to a poisoned woman. As they uncover a web of dark secrets, rumors of war engulf the village, forcing the Hammonds to choose between loyalty to their native friends or the increasingly terrified settler community.

As Resolve is plagued by strange dreams, she questions everything she thought she knew - about her family, her closest friend, and even herself. If the truth comes to light, the repercussions will be felt far beyond the confines of this small settlement.

Based on meticulous research and inspired by the true story of the fear and suspicion that led to the Salem Witchcraft Trials, THE DEVIL’S GLOVE is a tale of betrayal, loyalty, and the power of secrets.

The Last Witch of Scotland by Philip Paris

Being a woman was her only crime.

Scottish Highlands, 1727.

In the aftermath of a tragic fire that kills her father, Aila and her mother, Janet, move to the remote parish of Loth, north-west of Inverness. Blending in does not come easily to the women: Aila was badly burned in the fire and left with visible injuries, while her mother struggles to maintain her grip on reality. When a temporary minister is appointed in the area, rather than welcome the two women, he develops a strange curiosity for them that sets them even further apart from the community.

Then arrives a motley troupe of travelling entertainers from Edinburgh, led by the charismatic but mysterious Jack. It is just the distraction Janet, and particularly Aila, needs: for the first time in a long while, their lives are filling with joy and friendship, and a kind of hope Aila hasn’t known since her father’s death. But in this small community, faith is more powerful than truth, and whispers more dangerous even than fire.

Haunting and deeply moving, The Last Witch of Scotland is a story of love, loyalty and sacrifice, inspired by the true story of the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Britain.

Her Kind by Niamh Boyce

‘I am the sacrifice: my hair, my eyes, my tongue,
my flesh will turn to ash, will drift on the breeze,
will be the air they breathe.’

1324, Kilkennie.
In the dead of night, a desperate woman knocks on the door of a childhood friend, the infamous moneylender Dame Alice Kytler. In doing so, she steps into a house which is about to become infamous, and into a story which will go down in history. Tense, moving and atmospheric - Her Kind is a vivid reimagining of the events leading up to the Sorcery Trial of Alice Kytler, the first witch trial in Ireland and the British Isles.

The Lost Witch of Windsor by Amelia Frost (upcoming release)

Her mother was cursed. Will she suffer the same fate?

Windsor, Connecticut, 1647.

Alse Young is a wife, a mother, and a woman of faith. But when sickness and death spread through her town, whispers gather like storm clouds. Accused of witchcraft, she becomes the first person hanged for the crime in the American colonies.
Thirty years later, her daughter Alice Beamon carries the same stain. Known only as the witch’s daughter, Alice struggles to build a life in Springfield. She marries, bears children, and tends her household with quiet hope — but when misfortune strikes her neighbours, old suspicions rise again. The voices that condemned her mother begin to circle her too, and history threatens to repeat itself…

Told across two generations, this haunting novel explores faith and fear, love and betrayal, and the terrible power of a community gripped by hysteria. From the gallows of Hartford to the fields of Springfield, it asks what it means to survive when your very name is a curse.

Inspired by true events, this is the untold story of Alse Young — the first woman executed for witchcraft in America — and the daughter who lived in her shadow.

Each of these stories casts its own spell, revealing the darker corners of history and the resilience of women who refused to be silenced.

So brew a cup of tea, light a candle, play play on the gothic reading ambience video and step into the past… if you dare.

✨ Have you read any historical novels about witch trials or powerful women accused of magic? I’d love to hear your favorites in the comments.

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