One of the things I loved most about
The Hangman’s Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch wasn’t discovered until the very end – that the author is a descendant of the Kuisl family and, after extensive research, wrote this engaging fictional account of his own history and ancestors. The book provides an amazing sense of place in this peek into medieval Germany and I found myself in love with the hangman, of all people! With the unfamiliar names and places, I did have to frequently stop to figure out who/where they were talking about. And I had to just gloss over a few of the gory accounts of capital punishment. Overall, it was a likeable read and I don’t regret staying up way too late a few nights in a row to finish. There are three more books in the series, although the fourth does not seem to have been translated yet. I’ve added them to my
“Want to Read” list and will pick them up as I come across them (as opposed to the kind of series where you have to immediately move on to the next to find out what happened.)
Goodreads says: A historical thriller set in Germany, 1660: When a dying boy is pulled from the river with a mark crudely tattooed on his shoulder, hangman Jakob Kuisl is called upon to investigate whether witchcraft is at play in his small Bavarian town. Whispers and dark memories of witch trials and the women burned at the stake just seventy years earlier still haunt the streets of Schongau. When more children disappear and an orphan boy is found dead—marked by the same tattoo—the mounting hysteria threatens to erupt into chaos. Before the unrest forces him to torture and execute the very woman who aided in the birth of his children, Jakob must unravel the truth. With the help of his clever daughter, Magdelena, and Simon, the university-educated son of the town’s physician, Jakob discovers that a devil is indeed loose in Schongau. But it may be too late to prevent bloodshed.
Let me know what’s on your bedside!!
xoxo
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