Fox, Cromwell’s Spy
I was glad when I reached the end of this book, especially as I am a Royalist sympathiser. The setting is in rural Shropshire, and even in the time of the Civil War I find it hard to believe that such cruelty and torture could match the horrific tales of today’s world.
John Fox, who spied for Cromwell, carried out the bloody work for his commander Black Tom Fairfax and Parliament’s spymaster John Thurloe. Fox was challenged and sickened when he arrived home to discover that his wife had been tortured and burned at the stake after she was made to confess that she was a witch.
Fox travelled the country in search of Hopkins, the Witch Finder, and his band of murderers. In the early days of the Civil War, Witch Finders roamed the country murdering and slaughtering families and listening to malicious information spread amongst communities. When illness, death and bad luck visited small country villages, a witch was sought out and blamed. In this story the evil did not go unpunished.
This is a story of superstition, of intrigue and of murder, and even the gentle and humble people who wished to live in peace could never live free of fear when such evil men travelled the English countryside.
