Although I do have a passing interest in the subject matter of this book, I might not have purchased this one, had it not been for its author. I have read several of this author's books and they are extremely well-written. This book is definitely no exception. Although, as can be expected, the author focuses on witches and witch hunts mainly of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there is a chapter covering the mid-twentieth century Nazi period. As usual, the writing is clear, engaging, breathlessly exciting in places and occasionally tongue-in-cheek in the way certain things and events are described. This makes this masterpiece very difficult to put down. The descriptions given of the methods used to torture supposed witches, and their effects on the human body, are very graphic; so, no punches are pulled, as it were. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in this dark chapter in human history, or even in history in general, as told by a master raconteur.