Donna B Gawell

Any time a book reduces a topic to ABC's, some dumbing down of the topic is bound to occur. This book mainly illustrates cases from the author's own family history. Much of the research came from the author's In the Shadow of Salem which fictionalizes her ancestor Mehitabel Braybrooke's story. (The cover of that one depicts an Amish/Mennonite woman on the cover rather than a Puritan.) Unfortunately Gawell's narrative seems to be limited to a few incidents which are re-hashed throughout the book from different perspectives. While she does point to records which exist, she does not carefully cite those references. She calls the bibliography an "appendix." It does not follow a recognized citation standard format.… (meer)