Interview: May 7, 2026
How can you get away with murder in a city full of cameras? London’s Detective Superintendent Grace O’Malley must solve a puzzling case in WITCH HUNT, a highly addictive blend of gritty police procedural and creepy historical horror by Richard O’Rawe and his daughter, Bernadette O’Rawe. In this interview conducted by former publicity executive Michael Barson, Richard explains how the novel came about, the research that he and Bernadette did on notorious witch hunter Matthew Hopkins, and how they worked together to ensure that their first collaboration went as smoothly as possible.
Question: How much research did you need to do to unearth the historical details about the actual Matthew Hopkins, the 17th-century Witchfinder General? And how did you locate the source materials?
Richard O’Rawe: We had to do a fair bit of reading in order to go back to the period of the English civil war between the royalists and the parliamentarians because it was essential that we got a feel for the contemporaneous religious atmosphere. It was a time of religious fanaticism and extremism, a time of boogeymen and witches. Matthew Hopkins, aka the Witchfinder General --- who lived by the mantra, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus 22: 1), was a product of the times, a murderer who made a good living out of hanging and burning simple peasants on nonsensical evidence. In reality, not much is known about Hopkins, other than that he adjudicated the slaughter of over 200 people in the east of England.
Q: This story represents a dramatic departure from your well-reviewed series about professional thief Ructions O’Hare in NORTHERN HEIST and GOERING’S GOLD. How did that come about?
ROR: I accept that it is a departure from previous books. But, as a principle, I will not constrict myself to one genre. I like the freedom I get from writing about anything that takes my fancy.
How did it come about? I tend to gravitate towards enigmatic, historical characters, people who both graced and polluted the earth (occasionally at the same time). On top of that, I have had the Witchfinder General in my head for years and was convinced there was a novel in him.
Q: What were the challenges facing the two of you in weaving together a police procedural with supernatural elements? Did you have to rework any parts of the story that just didn’t seem to mesh?
ROR: I have been working with my daughter, Bernadette, for years, inasmuch that she has often given me invaluable advice on my books. In my first draft of NORTHERN HEIST, I had killed off Ructions O’Hare, and the book was being rejected by publishers. Bernadette pointed out that I should not have killed him off. I accepted her erudite observation, rewrote the ending and kept Ructions alive. The book was then snapped up by the first publisher who read it. Since then, it has been published in the US and Europe (it released in France on April 16th this year).
On WITCH HUNT (Berni's title), she was involved from the very start, from 2019, when we went over to London to get a feel for Westminster Bridge and discuss an approach vis-à-vis the opening scene of the book. Not only did Berni provide great plot lines, she wrote some passages that enhanced the overall story.
Q: This sort of genre crossover isn’t common, but it’s not without precedent. Were there certain earlier books you had read that gave the two of you the inspiration for WITCH HUNT?
ROR: As is usually the case, WITCH HUNT started with a “what-if.” What if a modern-day Witchfinder General were to activate a reign on terror on London? The first book we bought on the subject was Craig Cabell's WITCHFINDER GENERAL: The Biography of Matthew Hopkins. Then we started to read historical books about the period, to immerse ourselves in the culture of the time.
Q: Collaborating with another writer must always present challenges. What was the biggest difference in the working approach each of you took in the course of writing this book?
ROR: I found working with Berni very rewarding. For a start, she can be opinionated, but I knew that. This is a good thing because she often brought a touch of reality to the script. An excellent example of this was where she heavily contributed to the exchanges between the protagonist, Grace O'Malley, and her errant husband, Dominic. Grace is a feisty woman, someone who is not be crossed, and Berni perfectly lubricated her sharp tongue --- to the point where some early readers have commented that she is an advocate for women's rights.
Q: Will DS Grace O’Malley be returning in another book soon, thereby making WITCH HUNT the first in a series?
ROR: At the instigation of our publisher, Severn House/Joffe Books, we are under contract to write a follow-up book to WITCH HUNT and have started it. We hope to have a first draft ready for September.
