The Book of Witching

By: C. J. Cooke

Narrated by: Paula Masterton

A mother must fight for her daughter’s life in this fierce and haunting tale of witchcraft and revenge from the author of A Haunting in the Arctic.

Clem gets a call that is every mother’s worst nightmare. Her nineteen-year-old daughter Erin is unconscious in the hospital after a hiking trip with her friends on the remote Orkney Islands that met a horrifying end, leaving her boyfriend dead and her best friend missing. When Erin wakes, she doesn’t recognize her mother. And she doesn’t answer to her name, but insists she is someone named Nyx.

Clem travels the site of her daughter’s accident, determined to find out what happened to her. The answer may lie in a dark secret in the history of the Orkneys: a woman wrongly accused of witchcraft and murder four centuries ago. Clem begins to wonder if Erin’s strange behavior is a symptom of a broken mind, or the effects of an ancient curse?

Critic reviews

"Chilling and beautifully written, The Book of Witching gripped me from the very first sentence: I read it in one sitting. A haunting recreation of a real Scottish witch trial, this is CJ Cooke's finest novel yet." - Emilia Hart, New York Times bestselling author of Weyward

“This riveting slow-burn thriller from Cooke (A Haunting in the Arctic) connects the sins of the past with the horrors of the present in modern-day Scotland... Cooke does a nimble job of jumping between the present and 16th-century Scotland, providing lush description and snappy dialogue that brings the story to vivid, brutal life on the way to an ending that masterfully ties the many threads together.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A good pick for readers interested in witch trials throughout history, as Cooke melds elements of horror, historical fiction, family drama, and a police procedural into this witchy novel." - Library Journal

“The Book of Witching is brilliant and mesmerizing from start to finish and contains a final act that will have readers simply riveted. C.J. Cooke knows how to scare you, and her combination of the historical and the imagined storylines about actual witching in our world is the stuff of legend.” - Book Reporter

Interesting premise, missing something

Interesting premise, compelling idea, but felt like it was missing something. A little more about the titular book maybe. Something that ties it all together better. The soul slipping idea is fascinating but then left hanging and not resolved.

Flawlessly read.

Well-Written Historical Fiction

The audio is not the same as the e-book text, but it does not fully detract from the experience.
It is a well-written historical fiction about Orkney witch trials, but I did not care for the 2024 timeline, which had too many plot holes for my liking.

Missing parts

I read and listen at the same time and there are quite a few missing pieces in the audio. As I’m reading along, I find more and more full sentences missing. Skip this audio if you want the actual, full story. What a waste of a great book, Audible.

Not scary

The Book of Witching ⭐️⭐️⭐️.73 : chose to listen to this one since its witching season 🧙🏻‍♀️🧟‍♀️🧙🏻‍♀️ Scottish witches so such a fun narration 🎧💗🎧 not scary 🫣 it’s more on the side of a witch hunt and what might happen it you really did find a condemned witch….. the author did do her research 💕💕⭐️

Another Good Book From Cooke

Another good read from CJ Cooke. I loved the Lighthouse Witches and this was another good one.