The release date for the English version of 'The Familiars' by
Stacey Halls is Feb 2019. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
The young noblewoman Fleetwood Shuttleworth is expecting a child once again. Richard, her spouse, is keen to produce an heir as none of her previous pregnancies have succeeded in bearing fruit. Fleetwood then unearths a secret medical note offering a grave prophecy: she will not live to give birth again. She meets Alice Grey, a midwife, by coincidence, and she is assured that she will have a healthy baby. However, Alice is quickly charged with witchcraft.
Is Alice more complex than first appears? Fleetwood has to take a huge chance to establish her innocence. The 1612 Witch Trials loom as the lives of the two women entwine. Their lives are in jeopardy and there is not much time left. The truth is known only to them. They can only rescue one another.
This gripping and evocative story examines the rights of women in the 17th century and poses the question, "Was witch-hunting really women-hunting?" against the backdrop of the actual Pendle Hill Witch Trials. Alice Grey, Fleetwood Shuttleworth, and the other characters are real-life historical people. Capturing "witches," who were mostly impoverished and uneducated women, was King James I's obsession with establishing his authority over the unruly countryside (even forest animals, or "familiars," were accused of evil magic).