Witch Trial by Harriet Tyce review: 12 Angry Men meets The Craft
A courtroom drama with a fantastic twist.
Witch Trial by Harriet Tyce: Key details
- Publish date: 26 February 2026
- Genre: Thriller/Courtroom drama
- Publisher: Wildfire
- Available formats: Hardback, audio and ebook
- Series/standalone: Standalone
- Length: 400 pages
Blurb: When 18-year-old Christian Shaw is found dead in an Edinburgh park, the city reels – and the shock only deepens when police charge her best friends, Eliza Lawson and Isobel Smyth, with her murder.
As their trial begins and headlines scream for justice, rumours of bullying spiral into something darker: whispers of rituals, obsession, and a teenage pact gone wrong.
But then the girls take the stand – revealing a chilling defence no one saw coming – and the jury must question everything: the motives, the evidence, even their own judgement.
Who’s telling the truth? Who can be trusted? And what really happened to Christian Shaw?
Witch Trial by Harriet Tyce: The review
A teenage girl is dead, and two of her friends have been arrested for her murder. In court, they are claiming their innocence. But they are also claiming something much darker: they were doing the devil’s work.
Told mostly from the perspective of Matthew, a surgeon who finds himself on the jury, Witch Trial follows the full trial, taking us through witness testimonies, evidence and more. Not only is this an excellent courtroom drama, but it’s also an intriguing character study, as we learn more about Matthew and the effect the trial is having on him.
The theme of witchcraft is prevalent throughout the book which, given its title, won’t come as a surprise. But it’s dealt with excellently; rather than being a supernatural tale, you’re left to make up your own mind. Are the defendants telling the truth; were they actually cavorting with the devil? Or is it all just in their head?
It’s The Craft meets 12 Angry Men, and it’s brilliant.
Matthew is a fantastic protagonist, but the more you read of Witch Trial, the more you’ll wonder about his reliability as a narrator. Can we take his word for everything he’s saying, or is his just as untrustworthy as the defendants themselves? It makes for an interesting and thought-provoking read, with just enough background information given about Matthew to make him human, but there are plenty of unknowns about him, leaving us to question him in a number of ways.
Wonderfully written and a compulsive read, Witch Trial will make you think – and while its ending is unbelievably clever and fun, it’ll leave you with unanswered questions. But just as if you were on the jury yourself, isn’t that the nature of things? There’s no such thing as an objective truth – only what you accept to be real.
If you enjoy thrillers, legal dramas, or a spot of witchcraft, consider Witch Trial a must read. It’s a book I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come.
Thanks to Wildfire for providing a copy of the book to facilitate this review. This is a Squad Pod Featured Book review for March.
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