Title: The Witchfinder's Serpent
Author: Rande Goodwin
Date: 2023
Publisher: Greenleaf
ISBN: 979-8-88645-091-0
Quote: "On the second floor, there's a single room that shall remain locked at all times. Under no circumstances shall that room be entered."
So of course, when Nate and Marc find that their Aunt Celia is telling someone she's "managed to keep them in the dark," they decide it's a matter of life and death to break into the locked room. It's a museum full of artefacts from the witch hunting era, which Nate's class happen to be studying at school. And of course their breaking in releases the powers of malevolent magic that have been trapped in a brittle old bottle.
A metal serpent he picks up wraps itself around Nate's arm. He can't get it off. Sometimes it squeezes painfully. Its metal fangs stick in; he worries that they may be injecting some sort of poison. Trying to cut it off, he breaks two cutting tools and causes the school band saw to catch fire. There's nothing to do but tell Aunt Celia. Instead of knowing the secret to release the metal she reacts along the lines of "Oh dear."
Somehow Aunt Celia is connected with Alice Young, the first witch hanged in Connecticut, and also with the bullies at Nate's school and the gorgeous, friendly new girl. How I'll never know, because what I received of this alleged book was a "sample"--the first eight of twenty-nine chapters. I would have been interested in reading more of what Goodwin's been able to learn about Alice Young, but I can't recommend a book that's being reverse-marketed in this annoying way.
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