LaPlante does a wonderful job of bringing her ancestor to life through the court transcripts, but also by bringing to life the world that she lived in. She gives thorough biographies of not just Anne, but her father and her accusers. By giving the reader an understanding of all the players in this drama, Anne's tale is even more powerful. Toward the end of her hearing, you almost want to put your hand over Anne's mouth to stop her lambast of her judges, but at the same time you can't help admiring her courage. The solidity of the early pages dwindles off toward the end, through no fault of LaPlante, because of the paucity of records regarding Anne's last years, we can only get a sketchy outline of her exile. That outline feels like even less because of the fully fleshed out Anne of early in the book.