We are introduced to many interesting characters including the family living in Polneath House and their few servants. Set over two timelines, 1888 and 1918, this book is rich in detail of an era where the division of rich and poor is shockingly unfair and where life sits very closely to death and can be snatched away in the blink of an eye.

The Witchfinder’s Sister – Mind the blog The Witchfinder’s Sister – Mind the blog

Not only is Cornwall stunning captured on the page, but so is the imposing house of Polneath, which holds an immense amount of power over the grief stricken Ivy. This lapses from 1888 and 1918 which spans a whooping number of years that accumulate a lot of dark secrets within family, relationships and is written in the style that I’ve come to love from Beth Underdown. That’s two books from her I’ve enjoyed that’s given me tremors and thrills and regret that I’ve just turned the last page.The thought came to me that from now on every morsel in my mouth, every stitch on my back, would come from [Matthew]. Now her son many years forward was killed in the war however, it’s not a straightforward telling of his death, her mind wanders to think if this is retribution for her lack of action or from someone’s blame. In a story that goes back and forth in time, Ivy instinctively knows there was more to that tragedy, the repercussions of which have never left her, leaving her haunted, a woman with her own secrets, and there are hints that there is more to Tim's death too. Haunted by her son's death, she is also haunted by the death of young William Tremain and the unanswered questions surrounding his death many years ago at the Great House Polneath.

The Witch Finder’s Sister by Beth Underdown review

She has recently found out her son has been killed in the war, and is determined to find out exactly how he died. She is haunted by it, by the loss in 1888 of seven year old William Tremain who dies in a fire at the Big House in mysterious circumstances. Cue her immensely well-received 2017 novel The Witchfinder’s Sister, which has been adapted by Vickie Donoghue for the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch stage in this year of our Lord, 2021. Told over 2 time periods - 1918 and 1888 - we are following the story of Ivy who is struggling to come to terms with the loss of her son Tim 10 months earlier.Some publishers even welcome the transplantation of much later ideas into historical settings, giving characters appealing modern notions (feminism, gay rights) they cannot possibly have harboured, in a bid to make them more “relatable”. For me I need to like – or at last feel something – for the main characters and here somehow I just couldn't feel empathy, sympathy, and kind of deep emotion for them.