Dog Mountain Witch - Paperback

Dog Mountain Witch is a retelling of Mount Desert Island's best kept historical secret. In 1832, one hundred and forty years after Salem, Sally Somers was executed by her neighbors for witchcraft. The daughter of a mixed-race couple, Sally faced the hardships of racial and religious discrimination in a small island-bound New England town. Her story is told from the point of view of a sympathetic neighbor, Prudence Gilley, daughter of the local doctor, Doc Gilley. As Doc succumbs to old age and alcoholism, he also succumbs to jealousy as the Somers women, Sally and her mother, begin to use herbs and plant medicines to help the people of Southwest Harbor. Sally marries a popular young man from a prominent family, who quickly falls into dissolution, engendering more animosity within the town. Prudence struggles to defend the Somers, even as tragic events begin to spiral out of control.

Dog Mountain Witch is a gripping historical narrative that places the reader firmly in the frame of 19th Century coastal Maine, and stays true to both the historical events and rumors that surrounded the Somers family and their tragic end.