The Witches' Hammer [Hardcover]

Jane Stanton Hitchcock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 1995

Beatrice O'Connell is 35 and recently divorced. She lives with her father in his New York apartment, working as a researcher. One evening, an Italian antiquarian book dealer comes round to dinner. Her father has been given a book of black magic that seems to disturb Signor Antonelli.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hitchcock, who enjoyed quite a succes d'estime with her first novel, Trick of the Eye, has concocted an odder but perhaps more crowd-pleasing brew her second time out. Beatrice O'Connell, her heroine, is a dutiful Catholic girl whose life is violently changed when her beloved father, a doctor and noted rare-book collector, is found murdered soon after receiving a grimoire (an old book of black magic) from a grateful patient. It soon becomes clear to Bea and to her ex-husband Stephen that book and murder both are part of some wider, nefarious plot; matters are further heated when normally timid Bea begins to discover the sexual wolf within her. The plot eventually expands to embrace a rebirth of the ancient Inquisition; a deadly struggle between freethinking womanhood and a Christianity somewhat to the right of Torquemada; and Bea's need to choose from among not two but three kinds of male admirer. Bea's sensuous mood swings are not always convincing, the climactic pages have her behaving more like a female James Bond than the thoughtful woman introduced earlier and the villain is decidedly over the edge. Still, the novel is never dull, even if it is hard to take it as seriously as Hitchcock, with her bursts of historical scholarship, seems to intend us to.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The author of the Edgar Award-nominated Trick of the Eye (LJ 7/92) has penned what may be the epitome of the feminist thriller. A rare book collector in New York City receives a grimoire, a medieval book of black magic; shortly afterward, he is murdered. His daughter, Beatrice O'Connell, believes that the grimoire is connected to the murder and vows to discover how and why. Soon, she realizes that there is a powerful conspiracy connected to the grimoire as well as to another tome, a 15th-century book written to encode Christendom's eradication of witchcraft. As she grapples with the conspiracy, Beatrice also struggles with her long-dormant sexuality, now awakened to a fierce pitch. This provocative, compelling, and unsettling novel brilliantly explores the misogyny of Western culture and particularly of the Catholic Church. The graphic violence may offend some readers, but this ought to be one of the most talked-about books of the year. Recommended for all fiction collections.
Dean James, Houston Acad. of Medicine/ Texas Medical Ctr. Lib.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd (February 2, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0241002915
• ISBN-13: 978-0241002919
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,690,930 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hear Me Roar!, March 17, 2003

By 

sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Witches' Hammer: 2 (Hardcover)

After being thoroughly delighted with Jane Stanton Hitchcock's latest novel, "Social Crimes," I couldn't wait to read this earlier outing. Before reading 20 pages of "The Witches' Hammer", I could hardly believe it was by the same author. The plot was sheer comic strip, the characters were one-dimensional, and it had "movie" written all over it. (Though I find it hard to believe even Hollywood would think of taking on this potboiler.)

Totally repressed, gently bred, convent educated Beatrice O'Connell is confronted with the murder of her book collector father the day after he receives an ancient book of evil spells. She feels the police are apathetic and vows to find her father's murderer and is convinced the answer lies in the little book. She descends to Spanish Harlem to meet with an occultist and meets a totally erotic, sensual man. She goes with him and realizes her inner "wolf" woman. She returns from the wild and steamy assignation a charged and changed woman. She discovers an evil cabal within the Catholic Church who are willing to go to any lengths to recover the now lost book. This group wants to return to the practices of the Spanish Inquisition, locate and burn witches, and completely repress women because they are inherently evil. Her allies are her ex-husband and a strange frail little rare bookseller. The evil ones have a big spread in upper New York State that Beatrice infiltrates. The conspiracy is everywhere. The action becomes increasingly bloody and violent when Beatrice is confronted on all sides by malevolence.

I felt like Beatrice stepped into a phone booth and came out in her Superman suit to take on the forces of evil. I could not make the leap of faith that Marion the Librarian is in reality a Wonder Woman/Superman. Feminists would be better served by Pat Buchanan than "The Witches' Hammer" over-the-top silliness. The only thing I learned from this book was the definition of "grimoire." Read "Social Crimes" and give this one a pass.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An absorbing read, July 30, 2001

By 

"ljarvi" (Prescott, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Witches' Hammer (Paperback)

I was very intrigued and entertained by this novel. I felt that it was well-written, had believable characters, and presented a fascinating story which kept me hooked to the end. I certainly do not believe that the modern world is beyond the sort of fanaticism described in this book. I'm not surprised at the negative reviews from people who are obviously disturbed and/or threatened by its frank and unflinching exploration of the themes of sexuality, witchcraft, and religion. Ms. Stanton has worked to illuminate the complexities of human experience and motive through her characters, and has managed to spin a good yarn in the bargain! She has also tried to avoid having her characters become mere mouthpieces for one perspective. She succeeded admirably in this with her female lead character, allowing her to grow and deepen in her understanding of the conflicting aspects of herself, but was not as successful giving this same capacity to her male characters. Ms. Stanton seemed content to leave them hopelessly stuck in their automatic reactions and compulsions. Despite the feminist male stereotyping, it was a fun read. I will definitely be looking for other novels by this author.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended, September 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Witches' Hammer (Paperback)

Its not easy to write a realistic thriller about witches and witchhunters set in present day New York, but Jane Stanton Hitchcock pulls it off beautifully, with humor, variety and utterly wonderful prose. The characters and their motivations are utterly believable, in fact I think I've met some of them under other names! The activities these characters engage in are something we confidently tell ourselves is a part of the dead past. The combination makes this a truly scary novel, with its reminder that while witch hunts may no longer exist outside of the pages of novels, misogyny, repressed sexuality, scapegoats and obsession with and fear of the other did not die out with the thees and thous and funny hats of Salem, but are alive and well in our own century. An excellent read.