It began in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister's niece began to scream and convulse. It endless than a year later, but not before panic had infected the entire colony, nineteen men and women had been hanged, and a band of adolescent girls had brought Massachusetts to its knees.... 'Was it life The Crucible? No, it was worse.... Context is everything, and Schiff defines it; she interrogates her sources, makes every detail count, and her style is intriguing- sharp-eyed, discriminating, crisp. You want to understand the subject, and you want to meet the historian.' Hilary Mantel