The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

This book has been on my shelf for years, I pulled it down the other day, trying to remember where I got it (I can’t). and decided to give it a go.

Its a beautifully printed book with deckled edges and a stylish cover with an illustration of colonial Salem, Massachusetts inside. One of those books that is a pleasure to have in the hand.

From the book blurb:

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.

I loved the concept of a physick book (a book of herbal remedies aka a spellbook) being uncovered in modern times with flashbacks to the Salem Witch trials of 1692. There’s intrigue — stir in sinister people who want to acquire the book, and you’ve got a potential of a historical mystery adventure to enjoy.

The author, Katherine Howe, is descended from an accused witch in Salem and had another relation who died there — so she is ideally qualified to create such a story.

I gobbled up the beginning — the set up was intriguing, an old crumbling house, Connie, a PhD student doing research on the Salem witch trials, and discovering the story of Deliverance Dane, an herbal healer in Salem, 1692 — who, of course was suspected of being a witch.

Then just over 100 pages, the plot become light-weight and the book ventures into a romance. Connie meets and falls for Sam, a colonial preservationist and his work could have been a fascinating component to her research – but instead he is a shallow, undeveloped character.

Also annoying, while Connie is searching for the psysick book the clues become blatantly obvious. This reader found it hard to believe that an American colonial history PhD candidate wouldn’t be oblivious to these clues and be much further ahead in her quest. Then as I was still turning the pages, I laughed out loud when Connie has the revelation that her real name was Constance. Did she really not know the origins of her nickname of Connie?
Ms. Howe’s attempts to have some of the characters speak with a Boston accent are fingernails-on-a-chalk-board irritating. And the house — the crumbling house — well Connie doesn’t do anything to clean up this vermin infested house – yet she seems to keep living in it throughout.

Even with all these faults, I did find the chapters about Deliverance and her ordeal in early Salem interesting. Those parts of the book give a picture of the harshness of colonial life, and the level of ignorance and superstition that prevailed.

Full disclosure, I did not finish this book which I really wanted to like, but it just fell apart for me. The Psysick Book of Deliverance Dane was published back in 2009 and is the author’s first novel with first-novel flaws. I admire any author’s struggles to write, complete, and finally get a book published. Ms. Howe has since written several other novels since this one — it seems to me she has potential. I may try a more recent book to see how she has grown as a writer.