The Last Witch in Edinburgh

 I decided to read a fantasy for a change, but books that are historical are my preference.  This book opens in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1824 where they were having a witchcraft hysteria, and hanging women accused of being witches.  It's The Last Witch in Edinburgh.   

                                 

                   

 The author Marielle Thompson is aware that this is alternate history.  According to a Wikipedia article on Witch Persecution in Scotland, the last executions of women for witchcraft happened in  1706 and the last trial of a woman for witchcraft happened in 1727.  I'm not exactly sure why Thompson wanted to situate such events nearly a century later.

Much later in the narrative, an important character is raped while she was a college student, but it didn't go to trial.  This happened in the 21st century.  I learned from A paper published by the government of Scotland that the conviction rate for rape in Scotland is lower than for any other crime.  This is probably why the rape that happened in this novel was never reported to the police.

I was intrigued by a reference to a Clootie Well in this book.  This is a holy well with a tree growing beside it.  Strips of cloth or ribbons are tied to the tree to memorialize a deceased person. The memorial tree established for a murder victim in The Last Witch of Edinburgh seemed similar but there was more investment in it.  There was a portrait of the murder victim and numerous other portraits of deceased people significant to the college students who gathered at the memorial tree.  The tree seemed to become a metaphor for all the grief in that community.  It was very special to them.

I was touched by The Last Witch of Edinburgh, but I tend to want more from a book on an intellectual level. So I considered it very good, but not excellent.