The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World by Malcolm Gaskill

Malcolm Gaskill reconstructs a witch-hunting crisis in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1651 in The Ruin of All Witches. Suspicion settles on Hugh and Mary Parsons as family distress and community tensions turn into accusations of witchcraft.

Drawing on historical source material, Gaskill explores Puritan belief, domestic life and the pressures of colonial settlement. This is narrative history about persecution and its social setting, not a spellbook, a novel or an account of the later Salem trials.