The Heretic’s Daughter

Kathleen Kent was reared in a household where witch stories weren’t just a ghoulish Halloween tradition. The Lakewood resident remembers the first time her mother and grandmother relayed the story of family ancestor Martha Carrier, a victim of the Salem witch trials. Once only an oral tradition, has solidified Carrier’s story in her first book, “The Heretic’s Daughter”. “She was the wrong woman at the wrong time,” says of Carrier, one of the first women to be tried and hanged as a witch in Salem. devoted much of the past five years to travel and research, speaking to Salem historians and reading every piece of literature she could get her hands on. “I wanted it to be as factual as possible,” she says. “In order to do that, I had to stand in the place where Martha stood.” Though the story of Salem is more than 300 years old, says the elements that fueled the trials — superstition, ignorance and fear — still exist and resonate today. “The Heretic’s Daughter” hits bookshelves in Dallas Sept. 17, but that’s only the beginning for . Her second novel is already well under way. Apparently, Martha’s husband, Thomas Carrier, an English Civil War veteran who was seven feet tall (gigantic in his day), has his own story to tell. Stay tuned.