History Literature / MysteryOfTheWitchesBridge

* AsTheGoodBookSays: Billy Ben quotes Exodus when he tells the story of Samuel and Elizabeth: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." He quotes it again later too, while almost saying the trope name.

Strange legends surround the family at Pride's Point--stories of a Puritan ancestor accused of witchcraft, and of a ghostly fiddler who still haunts the Witches' Bridge. People say a curse follows whoever hears the Fiddler. Now young Dan Pride has come to live at Pride's Point with his uncle. He believes the stories are just superstition--until he learns that years ago his grandfather died near the bridge as the Fiddler played. Then one night Dan, too, hears the music. Will he be able to escape the terror that hangs over the Witches' Bridge?

* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler:Billy Ben]]. While he's friendly, likable, and a joking tease from the start of the book, the behavior continues after TheReveal of his villain status. The mask does come off sometimes (particularly during said reveal scene), and some of this is clearly an act to fool the authorities, but even when there's no one around during the climax except for him, and Dan, he continues to whistle, laugh, and make jokes--which, true to the trope, makes him more chilling for it.

* MeaningfulName: Just about everyone in the story has one of these. Dan Pride (and by extension his whole family), very much exhibiting that FatalFlaw, just like his uncle, grandfather, and his ancestor Samuel. The HolierThanThou Bishops who started the feud by accusing the Prides of witchcraft. Caliban, the evil ([[DarkIsNotEvil looking]]) dog, who like his namesake is beaten, treated like a pariah and slave, unfairly hated, and rejected to the point of turning on everyone around him. It is inverted, however, with the Coreys--the name itself is a [[HistoricalInJoke reference]] to Giles Corey of the Salem witch trials, who proudly went to his death by pressing to keep his land from being confiscated...but [[spoiler:Elder Corey was the traitorous thief]], [[spoiler:Billy Ben]] is an even worse liar, manipulator, arsonist, and attempted murderer, and it is Dan who instead stays silent to keep from incriminating himself.
** In-story: The skiff ''Jinx'' is this, [[InvokedTrope named by Dan]] to remind himself of the way people view the Prides as a motivator to expose the Bishops as the real source of ruin and blame. Of course he comes to regret that name when it ends up being viewed by the firemen, Billy Ben, and Julian at exactly the wrong time, reminding them of his having heard the Fiddler.

* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler:Billy Ben]].

* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: Pip and Gilly.

* BrutalHonesty: Gilly suffers from this.

* MeaningfulEcho: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."

* MistakenIdentity: Happens the first time Dan meets Gilly, thinking she's Pip.

* StarCrossedLovers: Julian and Ann Bishop were this.

* SwampsAreEvil: At least they are when a curse makes them part of a PortentOfDoom.

* SpannerInTheWorks: Lamie. If Dan hadn't gone to visit him (itself [[ContrivedCoincidence something which wouldn't have happened]] [[{{Irony}} if Dan's sunburn from being worked so hard by Billy Ben hadn't made him unable to sleep]]), and if he hadn't both [[MrExposition known about the existence of the witches' chamber]] (from Old Dan) and been a RearWindowWitness, Dan never would have learned where the briefcase was hidden, who the BigBad was, or that he should trust and confide in the twins to help end the feud.

* UncattyResemblance: Although they don't physically look alike, Dan quite aptly notes the emotional and mental similarities between Julian and Caliban --both badly hurt once, and thus brooding, suspicious, distrusting and disliking people.

* RuleOfSymbolism: Caliban's MeaningfulName and his NotSoDifferent status with regards to Julian, the motif of BeautyEqualsGoodness vs. DarkIsNotEvil, the Witches' Bridge as both a barrier and a link between the families, the Bishops vs. the Prides, the feud beginning with a Bishop's lie and ending with a Bishop testifying to the truth...the book is steeped in it.

* UncattyResemblance: Although they don't physically look alike, Dan quite aptly notes the emotional and mental similarities between [[NotSoDifferent Julian and Caliban]]--both badly hurt once, and thus brooding, suspicious, distrusting and disliking people.

* [[AdultsAreUseless Adults]]/PoliceAreUseless: Averted. Ann Bishop is convinced to help Pip spy on [[spoiler:Billy Ben]] and prove Dan's innocence thanks to him being in trouble on their behalf, and while Johnny Lash and the other policemen are at first fooled by the {{Frameup}}, the minute the truth is revealed they apologize to Dan and go chasing after the real villain.

* AwfulTruth[=/=]DarkSecret: The twins being Bishops, something which Dan would have picked up on much earlier (seeing as they weren't too good at hiding it) if he hadn't first been ignorant, then oblivious thanks to his growing prejudice.

* ConvenientlyAnOrphan[=/=]OrphansOrdeal: On the one hand, the deaths of Dan's parents merely act as a catalyst to get him to Pride's Point; on the other hand, it's this loss which strongly motivates Dan throughout the story to make friends, fit in, and ultimately prove himself a loyal Pride so he can connect with his uncle.

* GenerationXerox[=/=]DeadGuyJunior: All over the place. Young Dan is named for his grandfather, plays the violin just as he did, is similarly determined to prove the {{Curse}} to be merely superstition (and, eventually, to end the feud), and is said by Lamie to have a great deal of his grandfather in him, if not actually looking like him. Billy Ben walks just the way his father does ([[ChekhovsGun an important plot point]]) while Gilly is the spitting image of her mother Ann. Uncle Julian, in his most unguarded moments of deepest emotion and human connection, is described as having the face, expression, laugh, or voice of Dan's father, but in appearance he is actually [[UncannyFamilyResemblance the mirror image]] of Samuel Pride, the accused witch.

* MoodMotif[=/=][[PlayingTheHeartStrings Ominous Fiddle]]: The Fiddler acts as background music of impending doom, yet also a certain sorrowful beauty, in several scenes in the marsh.

* ShoutOut[=/=]HistoricalInJoke: Giles Corey, the accused Salem witch who was pressed to death rather than declare his guilt or innocence, is referenced through both the story of Samuel Pride and the Corey family that works for the Prides.

* SiblingYinYang[=/=]PolarOppositeTwins: The difference isn't as pronounced as for most examples of the trope, but it's pretty clear that Pip is the calm, easygoing, laidback twin while Gilly is temperamental, loudmouthed, and a bit bossy.

* SpannerInTheWorks: Lamie. If Dan hadn't gone to visit him (itself [[ContrivedCoincidence something which wouldn't have happened]] [[{{Irony}} if Dan's sunburn from being worked so hard by Billy Ben hadn't made him unable to sleep]]), and if he hadn't [[MrExposition known about both the existence of the witches' chamber]] (from Old Dan) and been a RearWindowWitness, Dan never would have learned where the briefcase was hidden, who the BigBad was, or that he should trust and confide in the twins to help end the feud.

* {{Frameup}}: [[spoiler:Billy Ben]] sets up one of these against Dan, blaming him for a warehouse fire at the shipyard, to get him out of the way so he can search for the witches' chamber.

* WitchHunt: In {{Backstory}} a literal one was directed at Samuel Pride and his wife, led by the Bishops and other greedy, arrogant members of the community, culminating in their arrest and executions. In the present day, a more metaphorical one exists that continually holds the Prides to be a source of bad luck and responsible for all trouble in town, eventually making a target of young Dan (thanks to encouragement and a {{Frameup}} from [[spoiler:Billy Ben]]).

* WitchHunt: In {{Backstory}} a literal one was directed at Samuel Pride and his wife, led by the Bishops and other greedy, arrogant members of the community, culminating in their arrest and executions. In the present day, a more metaphorical one exists that continually holds the Prides to be a source of bad luck and responsible for all trouble in town, eventually making a target of young Dan.

* ReligiousHorror: Thanks to his grandfather's death in the vicinity, the chapel on the point acts as a form of this to Dan until he uncovers its true secret.

* CannotSpitItOut: So much Dan could have made clear to his uncle, if he could just bring himself to say it. In his defense, however, his uncle's demeanor and the circumstances often made it very difficult to do so. This also applies to Pip and Gilly being unable to tell Dan their identities, albeit [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the FeudingFamilies making them ''very'' wary of how he might respond (although if they'd told him early enough, before he started hating and irrationally distrusting the Bishops, [[WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllThis he might have accepted it better]]).

* YouMeddlingKids: Although he never says the words, it's pretty clear [[spoiler:Billy Ben]] is thinking this when Dan and Pip expose his guilt. Pip had in fact earlier suggested he didn't want kids snooping around and interfering in his search.

* AndroclesLion: Rescuing Caliban from drowning in the marsh (which he wasn't even actually in danger of) is how Dan befriends the dog for life.

* ThirdActMisunderstanding: After the fire on the point, when Dan finds out the twins are Bishops and believes they lied to him on purpose as part of the feud, their friendship is understandably shattered for a while. It turns out, however, that some of this was [[InvokedTrope orchestrated by]] [[spoiler:Billy Ben]], who deliberately lied to both sides [[GenreSavvy so as to keep them from joining forces]] and stopping him from finding the lost briefcase. And as soon as Dan and the twins realize this, as well as the identity of the thief and location of the witches' chamber, the misunderstanding is quickly dispensed with--at least for Pip and Dan; Gilly takes a bit longer to come around, thus leading to her TwinSwitch and distraction to make amends.

* ThirdActMisunderstanding: After the fire on the point, when Dan finds out the twins are Bishops and believes they lied to him on purpose as part of the feud, their friendship is understandably shattered for a while. It turns out, however, that some of this was [[InvokedTrope orchestrated by]] [[spoiler:Billy Ben]], who deliberately lied to both sides [[GenreSavvy so as to keep them from joining forces]] and stopping him from finding the lost briefcase. And as soon as Dan and the twins realize this, as well as the identity of the thief and location of the witches' chamber, the misunderstanding is quickly dispensed with--at least for Pip and Dan; Gilly takes a bit longer to come around, this leading to her TwinSwitch and distraction to make amends.

* OldDarkHouse: The house at Prides, particularly the original old wing from Samuel's time.

* ThirdActMisunderstanding: After the fire on the point, when Dan finds out the twins are Bishops and believes they lied to him on purpose as part of the feud, their friendship is understandably shattered for a while. It turns out, however, that some of this was [[InvokedTrope orchestrated by]] [[spoiler:Billy Ben]], who deliberately lied to both sides [[GenreSavvy so as to keep them from joining forces]] and stopping him from finding the lost briefcase.