Book Review: The Crimson Crown
Book cover image from Anderon’s Bookshop
The Crimson Crown by Heather Walter is an enthralling escape into the world of witchcraft, misogyny and murder. A time of religious burnings, where men smile in their piety as witches/women dance in hot iron shoes.
Ayleth is a young witch, a Second to the Head of the Coven, who lives hidden from the rest of the world behind cloister walls. This coven was instrumental in making and maintaining the separation between good and evil, called the Veil. It was forged from ancestral blood and fed over the many years. Witches perished to maintain this separation.
The Crimson Crown revolves around power, ancestral belief, courage and betrayal.
I have always been interested in the witch trials, so this book held my interest from beginning to end. The story is told in first person, which lends a more intimate setting to the telling.
Walter’s multi-dimensional characters almost appear to reach out of the narrative dragging the reader into the story. I could imagine experiencing the heat of the burnings and the urgency to solve Ayleth’s mystery.
It gave me a visceral response to various portions of the book. I found myself reading late into the evening, trying to get to the ending, which I wanted to relish – and did.
Stories about witches can become problematic in the fact that they tend to follow a prescribed format. That was not true of The Crimson Crown, however.
I was thrown off guard many times throughout the book, which was a wonderful feeling of disorientation equivalent to what the characters were feeling in the book.
I cannot recommend this book enough. It was an excellent fast read, with many twists and turns that you won’t see coming. Characters appear, disappear, and change in ways you don’t want them to, but these serve to heighten the intensity of the story.
The only problem I found is that it left me wanting more. So many more questions needed answered! I can’t wait for the next book in the series..
Heather Walter, hurry please!
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Sue Cook lives in Freeport, Illinois with her husband Randy and two dogs. Her passions include assistance dogs, rescue dogs, music, acting, theater, poetry, and Doctor Who. She’s been in both film and theater and is a regular cast member of the podcast Doctor Who’s Line is it….Anyway? Sue is an advocate for the use of Service Dogs to assist their disabled handlers to maintain their independence. Quigley’s Quest, her first children’s book, addresses how a dog becomes a Service Dog.
