The Wise Witch of Orkney – A spell-binding debut novel about Scotland’s witch-hunting hysteria (Hardback)

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Scotland, 1593. King James VI launches a bloody witch hunt across the country, and the danger reaches even into his own court. The women he fears most are not distant figures on the margins. They are already close.

Elspet is a spae wife, a wise woman and healer from the isles of Orkney, and some would call her a witch. When the king’s new bride, Anna of Denmark, summons her to deliver her baby and cast a binding spell over the child, Elspet is trapped between two impossible choices. She cannot refuse the queen, and she cannot be discovered by the king.

As Elspet tries to hide her identity in a court that wants her dead, another woman seeks her help. Kitty Muirhead is outcast, persecuted, and desperate to escape the shadows of her past. Kitty and the queen could not be more different, yet their fates begin to knot together.

With the hunt closing in on all three women, they are forced towards a reckless plan to save one another before the death sentence is spoken. Witch.