The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs

I devoured the entwined tales of Salem witchcraft and modern academia in The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. Katherine Howe has produced an equally enthralling sequel in The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs (#849).  Appropriately enough for reading during a hurricane, one of the major plot devices here is an ancient charm called The Weather Work.

Constance Goodwin is back, no longer an eager graduate student, but a settled professor at Northeastern University, about to be considered for tenure.  She is still with Sam, who literally fell into her life in the previous book.  Life seems to be going well until Connie is asked to mentor a Harvard graduate student in Early American History.

Academic jealousies and unresolved issues from Connie's own doctoral work come to a head when new discoveries lead to danger to both Connie and those she loves.  Is she strong enough to solve the mysteries of her own background and protect what she values most?

I loved the New England background and the peculiar history of the Salem witch trials and their aftermath.  Here they are cleverly woven into Connie's personal background even though she is convinced she is the most rational being she knows.  Conflicts abound, as does more than a whiff of the occult.  A most satisfying read, and a worthy follow up to The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane.

(The only thing I didn't buy in this book was Connie's love of the Northeastern University campus.  Yes, it's great to be able to wander up the street to Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and get in with a student ID.  (How I miss being a member down in Florida!) But I did my post-graduate work myself there, and I found it rather a bleak and impersonal place.  Just my opinion - I know there are many proud alums out there!)