A captivating, historical fiction novel, “Newes from the Dead” by Mary Hooper, is about a young woman by the name of Anne Green who is sentenced to death by hanging. The story alternates between Anne, lying immobile and unaware of her surroundings, recounting her story, and a young physician attending her autopsy and discovering that she is still alive. In a twisted and exciting retelling of the past, Anne recounts the horrifying months before her public hanging while wondering if she is in fact, dead.

 

I am a huge fan of historical fiction books because of their realistic settings and storytelling techniques. I was intrigued by this book because it was narrated by a woman that was “dead” and it was set in England in the early 1600s. “Newes from the Dead” is a creative blend of heart-racing terror and romance as well as history, and it’s a book that I could not put down.

The story begins when Anne, a servant in the house of Sir Thomas, waking up and discovering that she can’t move and can barely breathe. She deduces that she is in a coffin and has been buried alive. That notion causes her to wonder if she is still living or if she is dead. The introduction caught my attention because I couldn’t predict how she would get out of her predicament. She continues by recalling the series of events that led up to her death sentence. She remembers the people, from the young Master Geoffrey, grandson of Sir Thomas, to John Taylor, a blacksmith and her one true love. Faced with difficult decisions and twisted with secrecy, Anne’s story is both exciting and emotional.

Each chapter alternates between Anne and a scholar named Robert Matthews. He has a speech impediment causing him to stutter. When he removes Anne’s body from the coffin in preparation for the autopsy, he has a flashback of another woman. As the story continues, Robert spots the slight movement of Anne’s eyelids. Once Anne’s actions are confirmed by the other scholars, Anne is treated as a patient rather than a test subject. As she comes to, she is given a bed and pronounced a miracle.

I highly recommend this book because it has a historical value, but it also has a twist of horror. It’s interesting because it is narrated by two different people in the same room. One person backtracks through the past while the other takes the reader through the present. When Anne wakes up at the end of the book, Robert remembers who the other woman in his memory was. The book is well balanced and a good read, never getting boring, but with just the right amount of questions and action.