The Heretic's Daughter

A spellbinding story of family, love, and betrayal set during the Salem witch trials as a mother is condemned by the truth—and her daughter is saved by a lie.

Salem, 1752. Sarah Carrier Chapman, weak with infirmity, writes a letter to her granddaughter that reveals the secret she has closely guarded for six decades: how she survived the Salem Witch Trials when her mother did not.

Sarah's story begins more than a year before the trials, when she and her family arrive in a New England community already gripped by superstition and fear. As they witness neighbor pitted against neighbor, friend against friend, the hysteria escalates—until more than two hundred men, women, and children have been swept into prison. Among them is Sarah's mother, Martha Carrier. In an attempt to protect her children, Martha asks Sarah to commit an act of heresy—a lie that will most surely condemn Martha even as it will save her daughter.

This is the story of Martha's courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived.

Kathleen Kent’s debut novel, The Heretic's Daughter--about the author's 9X great-grandmother who was hanged as a witch in Salem in 1692-- made the New York Times' Bestseller List the first week of publication. It has since been published in 17 countries, and was followed by two more bestselling historical novels, The Traitor's Wife and The Outcasts. Her 7th novel BLACK WOLF, a Russian spy novel, published Feb. 2023, has received glowing reviews in both the US and UK. She was Edgar Nominated for her contemporary crime trilogy: The Dime, The Burn and The Pledge. The Washington Post writes, “Raymond Chandler praised Dashiell Hammett for taking crime fiction out of the drawing room and into the streets. With Betty Rhyzyk, Kathleen Kent brings those mean streets to life as excitingly as anybody has in years.” She has written short stories and essays for D Magazine, Texas Monthly and LitHub, and has been published in the crime/horror anthology Dallas Noir. In March 2020 she was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters for her contribution to Texas literature.