Finally finished this audio book I've been working on since early December! There were parts I really liked about it, but also sections that really dragged and certain facts/phases that got really repetitive. Schiff doesn't go so hard on explaining WHY citizens of Salem claimed to see and experience witchcraft. She lays out the historical factors that went into making up a very strict and unrelenting court which sentenced more people to death (all of them people who claimed innocence) than any other known witchcraft outbreak. The majority of the book is taken up by a day-by-day breakdown of the incidents of Salem and the surround effected towns, based on every known source. These include diaries, court records and many accounts published after the fact. She admits when things are unknown or lost to history, but that still leaves a lot of blow by blow ravings, accusations, arrests, trials, quotes, and injustices. My least favorite part of the book was her discussion of Native Americans. She essentially quotes the colonial views of the time without examining them, or giving facts that might tell other sides to the story, when talking about "Indian raids" on settlers. It's undisputed that there was violence. This account alone might leave the mistaken impression that settlers were always the victims. However, if you want a very through accounting of the major players of the Salem trials, and the stresses and influences they were under, this does give that.