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Book Review of The Traitor's Wife

The Traitor's Wife
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Kathleen Kent's The Traitor's Wife is a stand-alone prequel to her debut novel The Heretic's Daughter: Martha is the title character of both. In this earlier time, she has taken up service in her cousin's household, where she is drawn to one of the hired men—the mysterious, older Thomas. Meanwhile, across the sea (and in alternating chapters), the royally sanctioned manhunt for the executioner of Charles I in the colonies proceeds with many twists and turns. Although I gained a greater appreciation for how American colonial and English history was interconnected in the late seventeenth century, I thought the plot was rather predictable. Martha was not particularly sympathetic and at times I could not grasp her motivations. The Traitor's Wife is work of early American historical fiction that falls between thriller and romance, originally published as The Wolves of Andover.