Hannah Duston's Sister

Hannah Duston hacks off the scalps of Indian women and children and is a heroine of colonial Massachusetts. Her sister Elizabeth gives birth to illegitimate twins she says were stillborn, yet she is hanged as a murderess. This story of kidnaping, lust, infanticide, and murder sounds like a true crime novel. The difference is, it happened four hundred years ago.

We Americans like to view our history through rose-tinted glasses. We imagine the Puritans dressed in drab homespun, sweeping hearths and harvesting corn. But a close examination of these 'good olde days" reveals our ancestors suffered their share of horror, abuse and pain.

The true story of Hannah Duston and Elizabeth Emerson, written by an author who shares their ancestry, begins with Elizabeth going to her death on Boston Common. Cotton Mather, who later records the details of Hannah's capture by warring Indians, preaches the sermon before her hanging.

Once you begin to read this novel you won't be able to put it down. Smith's search of the archives has revealed tantalizing clues to secrets barely hidden in the frayed cloak of history, and she uses these to weave a gripping story out of the stark facts that remain.