“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”
     — Maya Angelou, July 23, 2007

This quote opens C. J. Cooke’s latest book, THE LAST WITCH, and it speaks to the challenges that women are confronted with even now. Imagine how much more difficult life was for women in 1485 in the face of a master witchfinder who claims that anything that bleeds like a woman is not to be trusted, weak and inherently evil. This is what Helena Scheuberin must deal with as she takes on the notorious Heinrich Kramer, a monk who is supposedly acting on behalf of the Pope.

Helena recently saw one of her best friends, Anna, and Anna’s six-year-old daughter burned at the stake after being accused of witchcraft by Brother Kramer following a mockery of a trial. Now, Kramer has brought his campaign of outing evil to Helena’s hometown of Innsbruck, Austria. When she lashes out against him verbally, she is considered public enemy number one in his eyes and is destined for the same fate as Anna.

"C. J. Cooke has long been a master of gothic horror and suspense, and the events she describes in THE LAST WITCH transfixed me like no other book she has written."

Cooke is known for seamlessly blending history with fiction to create something chilling and great, but she has outdone herself with THE LAST WITCH. The Author’s Note provides the historical context concerning the primary characters and the events depicted here, all of which actually happened. The cruelty of the crazed monk, who is on a mission that seems far darker than simply following the Pope’s orders; Helena’s defiance; and the faith and honesty of Bishop Georg Golser converge to create a triangle of suspense and terror where no one may be able to stop the senseless deaths caused by this unbridled evil, all done in the name of God.

Golser is one of the best characters in the book and is able to stand out, despite being somewhat between the protagonist and the antagonist. My favorite passage is when he meets Kramer and states, “Brother Kramer, the Pope once said that gentle is the river that shapes the stones. I feel those are words to consider in this matter.” That produces this chilling retort from Kramer: “But I am not a river, Bishop Golser. I am a sword.” This exchange basically lets readers know all they need to know about these two characters and the anticipated altercation that they eventually will have on the matter of witch hunting.

Helena has no one she can count on, outside of her servant, Sophie. Even her husband, Sebastian, turns on her and does not support her when Kramer visits their household and she fails to bite her tongue about the murder of her friend and daughter. It puts her directly in Kramer’s crosshairs, and it is no surprise when Helena is among the first seven women imprisoned awaiting trial based on accusations of being witches. The trial is a joke, and it is almost a guarantee that anyone accused will be put to death after much torture. This makes the work being done by Golser and the few individuals still loyal to Helena so important if justice is to be done in this case.

C. J. Cooke has long been a master of gothic horror and suspense, and the events she describes in THE LAST WITCH transfixed me like no other book she has written. She gets deep inside the minds and souls of the women who are marked for death during this witch-finding campaign. She describes in unflinching detail the cruelty they endure prior to being put to death in this powerful and almost unbearably suspenseful work.