'Cause it's Witchcraft: A Sneak Peek at a Dallas Author's Big-Deal Debut

The cover of publisher Little, Brown and Company's September 2008-March 2009 catalog, which can be perused in its entirety here, features the cover for The Heretic's Daughter, due in bookstores in, well, September. But you'll likely hear about it well before then, as the author, Kathleen Kent, is a Dallasite making her debut with a book set during the Salem Witch Trials that's getting a major push from a major publisher promising an ad campaign spanning the pages of The New York Times Book Review to People.

For those so interested, a small excerpt after the jump, courtesy that catalog's two-page spread about The Heretic's Daughter. For what it's worth, the missus, who's a picky reader of historical fiction finished an advance copy in short order and declared it "entertaining, readable and informative," or the opposite of how she describes my body of work. Also a note: Kent has an excellent selling point working in her favor, as she notes that Martha Carrier, tried and hanged in the book for being a witch, is actually her "grandmother back nine generations." So, true story! More or less, which is plenty in publishing. --Robert Wilonsky

• Books