Ginger Garrett’s latest historical novel is based on actual German witch trials in the early 1500s—but her focus is not on witchcraft.
Instead Ginger hopes to reveal how the tragedy came to be. “Every moral disaster, I believe, begins with a small twist on a biblical truth,” Ginger says. “The more we twist it, the less we recognize the truth, and the further away we get from grace. We begin to worship ideas instead of God.”
A double murder results in a zealous Inquisitor arriving in Dinfoil, Germany, quickly cultivating fear, guilt and distrust amongst the villagers. Suspicion soon falls on the sheriff’s wife, Mia, who is struggling in a loveless marriage and hiding her past connection to the martyred William Tyndale. Mia is motivated by her uncertainty of what the truth is, but her belief that it exists. Adds Ginger, “She also has a strong desire for love, but when that desire is answered by the wrong man, she has to choose. Will she deny herself and her needs? Or will she take the happiness he seems to offer, and a chance for a better life?”
Faith drives Ginger’s writing, as it does her life, and accordingly her characters’ spiritual beliefs are an integral part of her novels. Says Ginger, “I want readers to consider what is said and judge for themselves who is right and wrong. I don’t always make the bad guys have a bad philosophy, and my heroines aren’t always sure of the truth. Everyone makes mistakes and has bad days, even in my novels. But again, I want readers to be sure of only one thing: the source of all truth, as expressed through Scripture.”