Formats: Paperback, Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook
Book Type: Novel / Standalone Thriller
Setting: Rural Massachusetts, present day and 1692
Bibliography: 29th Novel
Previous Novel: The Divorce (2026)
Next Novel: The Sleepwalker (2027)

The Secrets Waiting at Pemberton

Freida McFadden’s The Witch centers on Julia Barlow, a woman who returns to her family’s seventeenth-century Massachusetts estate after losing her job and apartment. Her arrival at Pemberton is meant to provide an opportunity to start over while checking on her elderly grandmother, but strange disturbances soon make the historic mansion an unsettling place to stay.

A grandfather clock stops at 3:41 a.m., unexplained noises interrupt the night, and Julia begins investigating the property’s troubled history. Her discoveries lead to Caroline Eldridge, a woman accused of witchcraft in 1692, and a mystery that has remained buried for centuries.

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The Witch Trials of 1692

The novel’s historical storyline takes readers to colonial Massachusetts, where accusations of witchcraft could destroy reputations, separate families and lead to imprisonment or execution. Caroline Eldridge’s experience introduces the fear, suspicion and religious tensions that surrounded witchcraft accusations during the late seventeenth century.

McFadden uses this historical setting to examine the vulnerability of women accused of violating social expectations. Caroline’s story provides the foundation for the mystery unfolding centuries later, connecting the consequences of historical persecution to the lives of Julia and her family.

Generations of Secrets and Betrayal

At the center of The Witch are the experiences of women separated by centuries but connected through Pemberton’s history. Julia’s search for answers uncovers relationships shaped by secrecy, suspicion and betrayal, while Caroline’s historical narrative reveals the dangers faced by women whose behavior challenged the expectations of their communities.

The novel examines how family histories can be distorted or concealed over generations. McFadden’s interest in deception and unexpected revelations remains central to the storytelling, with questions of trust, inheritance and historical injustice guiding the mystery toward its conclusion.