It All Begins With Salem

In the Beckett Coven series, Salem isn’t just a place, it is its own character. Between its history, New England charm, unique soul, quirky sensibilities, and the wonderful, eclectic group of humans who have lived there, Salem is unlike any other place. My hope is that I’ve captured enough of this in the books so that those who know Salem well will immediately recognize it on each page.

Essex Street, Salem, MA - photo by S.A. Sizemore

Some of the locations in the Beckett Coven series are actual places and have been called out by their real names: Charter Street Cemetery or Burying Point, Salem Witch Trials Memorial, Salem Witch Museum, Ingersoll Ordinary (located in Danvers, formerly Salem Village). The Roof (Salem’s only rooftop bar on top of The Hotel Salem), Essex Street, The House of the Seven Gables, and Danvers State Hospital (which no longer exists).

Other locations are completely fictitious but are recognizable as something that could exist in the real Salem, such as Salem Towne Museum, The Bell, Book, and Candle occult shop, Witches’ Brew coffee shop, Mark of the Witch tattoo shop, Salem Sheriff’s Department, and the Beckett house.

So where do we begin?

Let’s start with the fictitious Beckett house on Beckett Street. (Although there is a Becket Street in Salem, this location as described in the book does not exist, so please don’t go looking for it.) In Whispers of the Pale Witch, I described the Beckett house as “a yellow-and-white, two-story home encased in horizontal ship lathe. Brick chimneys graced both the left and right sides, and smoke stains marked that they had often been in use. The house attempted symmetry with an equal number of windows on each side of the central, dark purple front door. That symmetry was broken by a small, covered porch that wrapped around to the right. Proud of that was a narrow yard with bright green grass and a gravel path led to the back garden. It was the only house on the street with a front yard. The rest, mostly multi-storied dwellings, hugged the street as if they couldn’t bear to be without it.”

Hester Beckett's House - art by S.A. Sizemore

This is what Kylie sees when she first arrives in Salem. The house epitomizes the look of the Collins Cove area, which is a mix of houses and businesses built between the 1700s to the 1900s. I envision the Beckett house as being built in the 1800s, using some wood from a previous structure that used to be on the same property. The fictitious home sits on the stretch of Beckett Street between Essex and Derby on land that would have been owned by Kylie’s 11^th great-grandparents and passed down through her branch of the Beckett family.

The house’s most recent resident was Kylie’s great-aunt, Hester Beckett, who unfortunately recently died from a heart attack. She was the only grandparent Kylie ever knew, but living across the country in Los Angeles meant she hadn’t seen Hester in person in twenty years. With little or no memory of her early childhood in Salem, the town and the house Kylie once lived in seem odd and yet familiar.

The next location of significance is the very real Charter Street Cemetery. In the book it is referred to by its much older nickname, The Burying Point. In Whispers of the Pale Witch, it is described as “more than just a cemetery. It maintained memories…. Not only was it one of the oldest European American graveyards in New England, but it was also a complex of historical sites. Next to the cemetery was the seventeenth-century Pickman House, which had been converted into a welcome center, and the Salem Witch Trials Memorial that rested in a small rectangular park. Most Salemites just referred to it as The Burying Point. For tourists, it was a must-see stop on any itinerary of Salem. For Elizabeth Ingersoll, it was the final resting place of her ancestors.”

Several key scenes take place at this memorial and cemetery. Although in reality Charter Street Cemetery is closed to new burials, in the world of the Beckett Coven, this is where Hester Beckett’s ashes were interred. An equally important landmark is the memorial stone for Bridget Bishop within the Witch Trials Memorial. Bridget was the first person executed during the trials and plays a very important part in the Beckett Coven series.

Charter Street Cemetery - photo by S.A. Sizemore

Within this fictional world there are several businesses along Essex Street, which centuries ago was called Main Street. The first of these businesses is The Bell, Book, and Candle, an occult shop owned by Finlay Williams, the former partner of Elizabeth Ingersoll. While on a run during her first morning in Salem, Kylie notices the shop “painted a bluish-purple with dark-purple doors, almost identical to the color on Hester’s front door. Dozens of progress Pride flags, chained together with white string, hung across the façade from the upper floor window casings. On a gate to the right of the building, a sign invited passersby to visit a shrine to the Goddess Diana in the back garden.”

The Bell, Book, and Candle occult shop - art by S.A. Sizemore

Further down Essex Street, Kylie spots “a tattoo parlor with the words, Mark of the Witch, scrawled in white paint across its large front window.” It is owned by Roarke Hoar, a woman with “pixie cut blonde hair, an impressive collection of tattoos, and a penchant for wearing amulets on long chains.” Even in Salem, Roarke “always looked as if she was about to start a séance.”

When the pavement by the Witch City Mall becomes uneven with cobblestones and bricks, Kylie slows to a walk and heads into The Witches’ Brew for her breakfast. Inside, she finds the coffee shop to have “a cozy atmosphere with dark wood furnishings surrounded by red brick and black gloss paint. Highly polished chrome brewing equipment stood out against the oak counter. Along the main wall, opposite the bar, was an enormous mural of a witch in flight holding a steaming cup of coffee. It was a social media photo op requirement for any visitor to Salem.” In the Beckett Coven series, the shop is owned by Cathleen Mather, Roarke’s coven mate and a rival of Elizabeth Ingersoll.

Further out from downtown Salem is Salem’s End Road. Within the world of the Beckett Coven series, this is where Elizabeth Ingersoll lives. At the end of her street is a wooded path that leads further into Salem Woods to a cave not far from the Forest River. This cave will first be introduced in Whispers of the Pale Witch but will have a much larger role in Lies of the Bishop Stone. It is by far the most metaphorical location in the book series.

Forest near Salem, MA - photo by S.A. Sizemore

I can’t wait to share with you the other Salem locations, fictitious and real, once Whispers of the Pale Witch is out in the wild on September 29, 2026. Keep checking back to this blog over the next few months to discover more details before the book drops. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about Salem and the locations I mentioned above, head to The Hunt section of beckettcoven.com. Find the interactive map and go on a hunt through Salem to find the Pale Witch.

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Shall we begin?