Short but interesting little book that take a close look at a small handful of exorcisms in 16th and 17th century France and England. The author makes no bones about his sceptical approach; he tends to categorise cases of possession as coming under mental illness, fraud, or the desire to exhibit a "good" (i.e. politically useful) demonstration of a particular faith. Not being religious myself, I've some sympathy with this approach! It was the use of exorcism as a political-religious tool that I found most interesting, though - it's not anything I'd come across before, but it made a very unsubtle sort of sense. ("Hey, Huguenots, watch this Catholic cure possession with a communion wafer and be converted!") Dunno how many fell for it, but points for trying.