Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

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Average customer rating 3.5 (11 comments)

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* Hardcover: 384 pages * Publisher: Voice (June 9, 2009) * Language: English * ISBN-10: 1401340903 * Author: Katherine Howe * Cover art: I like the old timey feel. * Over all rating: *** out of 5 stars * Obtained: Borrowed from a friend The Physick book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe Reviewed by Moirae the fates book reviews Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie’s grandmother’s abandoned home near Salem, she can’t refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest�"to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge. As the pieces of Deliverance’s harrowing story begin to fall into place, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials, and she begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem’s dark past than she could have ever imagined.(Synopsis provided by goodreads) After reading the synopsis of this book I wanted to read it. The story line it's self was good, but for me the writing style fell flat. There were times when it was incredibly slow. I found Liz to be obnoxious. I thought that Grace was the most interesting character in the book. Connie bugged me at times, like really bugged me. I had a lot of issues with this one. Mainly in the writing style and in Connie herself. However, I liked the story itself. The whole premise and idea was original. I like anything having to do with the Salem Witch Trials. Howe's description of the house was really good. I felt like I was there. I just wish the book was about 100 pages shorter then it was and Connie was more mature and Liz wasn't even in the book.

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THE PHYSICK BOOK OF DELIVERANCE DANE by Katherine Howe is an interesting take on the innocence of the women hanged as a result of the Salem Witch Trials. History has shown that they were all victims of others’ hysteria. But what if one of the accused really was a “cunning woman”? That is the supposition of this book. It’s 1991. Connie is a Harvard student working on her doctoral dissertation. At the same time, she’s living in the very old home left by her grandmother, supposedly getting it ready for sale. The home is near Salem, Massachusetts. Connie finds “Deliverance Dane” written on a piece of paper inside a key inside a very old bible in the house. Her curiosity about the name leads to her investigation, which leads to the subject of her dissertation: a “recipe” book used by Deliverance Dane to cure the ailments of local people and animals. Connie needs to find that book. When she hits a wall and she thinks she can trace it no further, her advisor, a professor at Harvard, becomes furious with her. He seems to be taking Connie’s investigation personally. Why? What does he have invested in this? When this story deals with historical events, even those that are fiction, it’s enjoyable. Sometimes this is Connie’s research that so concerns her advisor. But sometimes we flash back to the 1600s and 1700s so that we see Deliverance’s book change ownership. In this way, we’re always a step ahead of Connie’s investigation. This story also has magic, but it’s not as annoying as you might think. Even though it doesn’t seem at first to add to the story line and even if the magic does seem silly at times, it’s not just padding. But other parts of the story did irritate me, especially Connie’s grandmother’s abandoned old home with no heat or electricity. It’s just too easy for Connie and her dog to live there. For example, at one point she makes a pot of pasta for dinner with a guest. How did she make it with no gas or electricity? And what about her bed? It had been sitting in that old house for 20 years. Wasn’t she afraid the mattress was full of bugs? And why was her first priority a telephone? Why wouldn’t she want a hot water heater for bath and dishwater and electricity first? Petty issues like these can spoil a story. And then there are the last couple of chapters (that is not including the “Postscript,” which is very interesting). They’re ridiculous. For example, two people fight over a book that belongs to neither of them. If I cite more examples, I’ll give away too much. But all in all, THE PHYSICK BOOK OF DELIVERANCE DANE is good. Connie’s research and the flashbacks, the author’s premise that one of the women pronounced guilty during the Salem Witch Trials may actually have been a witch, were interesting. I enjoyed reading the book. But I don’t think it lived up to all the hoopla over it in 2009 and 2010.

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This book completely captured my mind and my heart. It was the first time in a long time I encountered a book I simply could not put down, passing up sleep and meals just to keep turning those pages. I could identify with the settings and characters 110 per cent, and the love story was a lot more compelling and a lot less saccharine than most I've read in recent times. No, the plot is not always entirely plausible, but it is so well-written that I was more than happy to suspend belief.

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Let me start with OMG! I loved this book. It was well written, the characters were well developed, the plot was amazing. I have to thank the First Look group over at Barnes and Noble for letting me be a part of this one. The book follows Connie, a student working on her dissertation for her PhD in American History. Her mother asks her to get granna's house, in Marblehead Ma. (near Salem), ready to sell. Connie begins to discover weird things about the house from the beginning, and when she discovers the name Deliverance Dane she starts hunting for more information. The book jumps between the 1990's and the late 1600's - early 1700's. These jumps allow us to follow the stories of Deliverance, her daughter Mercy, and Granddaughter Prudence. As Connie gets closer to finding what she's looking for, the story of these women in the past gets filled in more and more. What Connie eventually finds is more than unexpected. I love stories about Salem and the With Trials, but sometimes I think it's been so overdone that it would be hard to find a new angle to write about. Well let me tell you Katherine Howe has hit the nail on the head with this one. The story is enthralling. I became attached to Connie almost immediately. I think this book was great. It was suspenseful at times, emotionally pulling, and fast paced. Even when I wasn't reading this one I was thinking about what was going to happen next. I truly became engrossed in this book. I'm finding it hard to write this review because I can't seem to explain what exactly it was I liked so much about it, and to just say I loved everything about it isn't very descriptive, but that's just it, I LOVED everything about this book. This one I'm sure I will pick up and read many times in the future. Great Book!

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Not just magical but much mystery as well. Enjoyed this book very much.

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I thought I would love this book; it had all the right ingredients: historical fiction, a story about witchcraft - the Salem trials, healers, "cunning" women - with a bit of mystery thrown in. But it ended up being a cross between Harry Potter, The DaVinci Code and Garden Spells (a book I detested). Howe spent way too much time in the 1991 story of Connie and Sam -- with a most predictable budding romance from the moment Sam rappels from the church ceiling. I prefer my historical fiction to remain in the past. Howe was inconsistent with the overdone Boston accent; it was clunky, hard to read and didn't ring true. Plus, I didn't really care for the main character, Connie. None of the characters were fleshed out as much as they could have been; they were all overdone caricatures of academics and hippies. Howe's afterword was very interesting. She cites Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's work, A Midwife's Tale as an inspiration for parts of this book. I think Howe would do well to follow in Ulrich's footsteps and stick to research and nonfiction. She's a talented writer, but this book just fell flat for me.

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The writing is excellent. However, the story moves at such a slow pace I could never really dig in. There just wasn't very much excitement in the book to keep me pulled into the story. I liked it, I wanted to see what happened and how things transpired. But it was just one of those books I could just take or leave. It took me a long time to read it and I wasn't compelled to finish the story the way I am with other books. Which is too bad because, as I said above, the writing itself is excellent. I would pick up another book by Katherine Howe. I would also recommend this book to those people who enjoyed The Historian. However, do be prepared by a slower burn read.

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Connie Goodwin is ready to spend the summer working on her Harvard Ph.D.in early American history. After intense encouragement from her advisor, she knows that finding an original document to base her dissertation on will cement her future. Too bad her mother decides that what she really needs to do is clean up her late grandmother's house, which has been long abandoned, so that it can be sold. As luck would have it, that original document may exist in her grandmother's house. Connie thinks there may be a book of wisdom, potions and spells gathered by an ancestress who was tried during the Salem witch trials. In Howe's world, this woman, Deliverance Dane, really was a witch. And so was her daughter, and so on. Like any plucky heroine, Connie doesn't see what an outside observer, such as the reader, cotton on to immediately. Then again, her mother knows exactly why she wants Connie to spend the summer at her grandmother's house and doesn't tell her why. Worse, she could have been preparing her daughter her entire life, and does not. Instead, there is a race against time involving Connie, the book, Connie's new hunky handyman boyfriend and academic ruthlessness. This debut novel brings to mind The Historian in two respects: A new author receives a huge contract and massive publicity, and in return publishes a turgid, awkwardly written book that needs at least one solid rewrite and a plot that doesn't resort to melodrama. It's too bad, because Howe really does know her history as an academic in American and New England history herself. The paranormal aspect of the story is handled very well; this is wise crone-style witchcraft. She also weaves into the narrative episodes featuring various ancestresses, including Deliverance and her steadfast daughter. These scenes are far more vibrant than those taking place in contemporary times. It may be tempting to say the novel would have been better had it been set entirely in the past. But perhaps the historical scenes stand out more because they need to do more for the overall story arc than the contemporary scenes and might not be able to carry an entire novel on their own. Perhaps if Howe spends more time on character development in her next novel, it won't matter which setting she chooses because she could end up with a stronger story.

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Creative concept, and well-researched, but formulaic at heart and ultimately disappointing. I thought the Connie character could have been developed in greater depth; some of her reactions and choices just didn't seem credible. The explorations of magic would have had a greater impact if the realism of the book was more plausible overall. Look forward to more from this author though!

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My inner grad student loves the research that obviously went into this book. Not so thrilling is the heavy foreshadowing which removes any element of surprise, but the book is still fun to read, especially for anyone interested in the Salem witch trials.

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There has never been a genuine grimoire, aka book of shadows or spell book, found in the US. When Harvard doctoral student Connie Goodwin moves Marblehead, MA to rehabilitate her grandmother's historic home, there are many signs and portents that suggest that Connie may be hot on the trail of the first American grimoire. Her major advisor, Manning Chilton, shows a particularly intense interest in her search, and when Connie's new guy, Sam, has a surprising accident and falls prey to uncontrollable seizures, she is forced to take actions that she would otherwise consider insane. In the course of the crisis, Connie discovers who she is. Katherine Howe had turned out a compelling modern/historical mystery that is, for the most part, well grounded in fact. Deliverance Dane is a genuine thriller, one that requires an open mind, but is ultimately satisfying.