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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.

A brilliantly detailed, fast-paced historical thriller, The Hangman’s Daughter is the first novel from German television screenwriter Oliver Pötzsch, a descendent of the Kuisls, a famous Bavarian executioner clan. ... Read more

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) I am reviewing from the Advance Reader's Copy Uncorrected Proof.

This English edition of "The Hangman's Daughter" is Lee Chadeayne's translation of "Die Henkerstochter", by Oliver Potzsch. (There's an umlaut over the "o", but I don't know how to make that!) The mystery's last chapter is titled "A Kind of Postscript", where Potzsch describes how he is a descendent of the real-life Kuisl executioner family. He uses the name of a real forebear for his protagonist, Jakob Kuisl, the offical town hangman.

This is very interesting stuff. As is made clear in the novel, executioners were necessary for carrying out legal death sentences, but they and their families were shunned outcasts. They pretty much married only within other executioner families. In addition, executioners were the torturers back when a confession through torture was the legal method of determining guilt. Humans have unlimited ability to rationalize anything. So a suspect is tortured until she confesses to the crime. She is not guilty until she confesses. The torture continues until she confesses, after which she is put to death, or until she dies from the torture without confessing. The moral of the story is, don't make anyone mad enough to blame you for something.

This segues into Inquisitional torture. It wasn't just the church that held trials for accused witches. Anybody could claim injury from a witch, and the secular authorities held their own trials for witchcraft. This is certainly what happened in the 1692 Salem Witch Trials.*

And this is what happens in "The Hangman's Daughter". A midwife is accused of witchcraft and murder. Jakob Kuisl must legally torture her for the politically expedient guilty verdict the village council desires. However, Jakob doesn't believe she's guilty, and takes it upon himself to find the real murderer. The mystery takes place in Schongau, a village in 1659 Bavaria (there was no German state yet). I'm not sure when Bavaria outlawed legal torture, but I'll take Potzsch's word for it that it survived in Bavaria to this time.

I liked the characters in this book. Actions and reactions ring true, even if they are sometimes over the top. You have the super-practical Jakob who still has to get drunk the night before an execution. His daughter, cut from the same cloth. Simon, son of the local quack, who can't get any respect because he's into new-fangled medicine instead of bloodletting and purging. The court clerk, intelligent, but willing to cut any corner to avoid a scene in his town. The village burgomasters, running the gamut from young & idealistic to old & drunk.

I'm rating "The Hangman's Daughter" four stars for the plotting and characterization and five stars for the historical interest. It is a long book and can get just a bit wordy. Incidentally, don't let the occupation of Jakob Kuisl worry you. There is no graphic violence or even graphic language.

* Though the accused in Salem were mistreated before sentencing, only one was technically tortured. Eighty-year old Giles Corey refused to enter a plea, as a protest against the court's mania. In an effort to force a plea, the court ordered that stones be piled on his chest until he couldn't breathe. It took him two days to die and he never entered a plea.

An Entertaining & Descriptive Historical Thriller

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) The sensory-descriptive writing of Oliver Potzsch takes one back in history to that place in time near the end of the Renaissance and before the Enlightenment where beliefs in witches empowered by the devil were still strongly held in the Bavarian town of Schongau. His startling prologue about the gory execution of Elisabeth Clement in October 1624 by Jakob Kuisl's father, the town executioner, sets the stage for the novel's main story thirty-five years later involving Jakob as the new executioner, his daughter Magdalena, and her love interest Simon Fronwieser, the town's physician's son. The witch trials and executions of numerous women from years ago have cooled down, but the recent death of a child bearing a witch's mark threatens to revive them. Since the child and some of his comrades who turn up missing were with the midwife Martha Stechlin, she is arrested and held in the town's keep to be tortured by Kuisl for a confession. Martha assisted Kuisl's wife in the birth of Jakob's own children. He, his daughter, and Simon believe she is innocent and act as detectives to find the true murderer with the hope of saving Martha from execution.

One of the elements that makes this novel so moving is that Kuisl doesn't enjoy torturing and killing innocent people. He has a conscience. He also believes in God, although he finds God more in the beauties of nature than in mankind. Nonetheless, he inherited the job from his father who inherited it from his father. It is just a job, and when he tortures innocent people, including Martha, he realizes that if he didn't do it, someone else would. His affection for Martha, even assisting her to endure the suffering he inflicts, is unforgettable. It is also interesting that he has the same interest in herbs and natural medicine (including alchemy) as the midwife. In fact, he also shares this interest with Simon who, unlike his father who is old school, seeks the benefits of newer advances in medicine and comes to the hangman's house to read books from his private library which include works by Paracelsus and a book titled "Surgical Armory" by Johannes Scultetus, the city physician of Ulm, which "was so new that probably not even the University of Ingolstadt had acquired it yet".

Other interesting aspects of the story involve a shadow-lurking, scarred character with a hand of bone known as "the devil" as well as a treasure hunt. One is also introduced to political figures such as Johann Lechner, the court clerk, whose desire to sacrifice the "witch" for the good of the community will rub many readers the wrong way, although it contributes to the tension of the novel. If one is wondering about the novel's title, one will have to read the story to find out why Potzsch chose it, although some may read it and still wonder why the author chose this title since Magdalena's role may seem minor compared to that of Jakob Kuisl and Simon Fronweiser. Personally, I believe the title is a good one (and that she plays a critical role). Again, I want to emphasize that the author is a master wordsmith when it comes to setting the mood of time and place. Not only the social dynamic with its beliefs about certain professions (including the belief that a respectable doctor shouldn't court or marry a hangman's daughter), but also the physical surroundings - including the practice of dumping the contents of chamber pots in the streets - is described very well. Although I read an advance reader's uncorrected proof copy, I plan to purchase the final publication when it comes out.

"something wicked this way comes"

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) This is an extremely well-written tale of murder, suspected witchcraft, and ultimate evil set in the mid 17th century in Bavaria. The main protagonist is the hangman of a small town, whose job it is to torture folks to extract confessions from them, and then to execute them by various means.

When a young orphan turns up dead, the townspeople immediately leap to the conclusion that witchcraft is involved, and that the town midwife is the witch. She's thrown into prison and the hangman, reluctantly, must extract a confession from her so that she can be burned at the stake, and thus quell the unrest in the town. Unfortunately, other orphans are found dead, the panic increases, and the pressure on the hangman to get the whole business over increases exceedingly.

To save the midwife he must discover who is behind the childrens' deaths, and he is aided in this quest by the young town physician, and his own daughter. It's an exciting book, and there is true evil lurking behind the scene in the area. There's plenty of action, a subplot concerning the love between the physician and the daughter, and coincidences abound to move the story forward, and to place several characters in severe jeopardy.

This is a book well worth reading, for it tells us of a different time and place, where peoples' beliefs were more attuned to a world populated by demons and other evil spirits, and the bad things that occasionally happened could be blamed on them, or on fellow townswomen who were called out by jealous neighbors as witches. There are some parallels to our own time, but they are minor, and don't interfere in this exciting and interesting book, which I highly recommend.

Near Perfect Historical Fiction Mystery - I Look Forward to More Translations of the Series

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) There is an almost guilty pleasure in reading The Hangman's Daughter. The writing - and translation - is wonderful; the story glides along, quietly reeling you in until it's almost impossible to put the book down; and the ending is really fascinating. I especially appreciated the short author's note on the history behind the book and its setting.

Taking place in 1660 in Germany (those of you familiar with the alternative fiction world from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay will immediately be comfortable with this setting as it's the same era as that game), the book follows the story of a murderer or murderers hunting some of the town's children. The protagonists are the hangman (who does not believe the most "convenient" suspect is actually guilty), the hangman's daughter (an herbalist who is toying with becoming a midwife), and a young doctor who is growing increasingly frustrated with the state of medicine (or lack thereof) practiced during this time period. While the doctor may be a somewhat familiar archetype, particularly if you've read Ariana Franklin's series starting with Mistress of the Art of Death, I think it's reasonable to assume that during this time period, a number of these types of young professionals helped to propel the Renaissance into the Enlightenment; thus, I don't think the doctor character detracts in any way.

Throughout the story, there are a number of mysteries that pose interweaving threads. It's such a pleasure to read as Potzsch brings these threads together, then back away from each other again, then together again, over and over. All the while, one is thinking, "Well, this obviously means that X and Y are related" and then 20 pages later, "Oh, I see, X and Y could never be related...no, no...it must be that X is the cause of W and so that means that...." The result: a book that, by page 90 or so, is near impossible to set down.

Who is killing the children? Why? And why just some children and not others? Why couldn't the "convenient" suspect have done it? When will folks realize that some of the clues clearly contradict others - or maybe they do realize it and the "truth" is a bit more scary to them? And why does the hangman understand intuitively but yet is struggling to put clue 1 with clue 2 with clue 3 (and so on) together to build a better picture of who might be doing this? Okay, and who put clue 4 there? That throws off the whole puzzle the reader was building up until that point. Oh, but wait a minute...what about....

There's murder, witchcraft, mercantile intrigue, political intrigue, and just plain ignorance and superstition all working together to hide facts and confuse clues. Just brilliant.

The Hangman's Daughter is one of the best historical fiction / mystery / suspense books of 2010. I was really pleased to see that this is a series; I'm really looking forward to seeing the characters develop. I'm a bit leery to draw the comparison as inevitably someone will vehemently disagree, but in terms of historical mystery / suspense, Potzch has created a setting and story just as enjoyable as Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. Frankly, it's enough to make one want to learn German just to read the others in the series; I may check out Amazon's sister in the UK to see if they are already translated.

Outstanding Geman Historical Mystery

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) Readers used to historical fiction like the Brother Cadfael series will be impressed, entertained, and thoroughly engrossed by The Hangman's Daughter, a murder mystery set in the small Bavarian town of Schongau in 1659, some years after the end of the Thirty Years War, which had devastated almost all of Germany.

It is a murder mystery - several children are found murdered - but it encompasses much more than this. On each child is found a mysterious sign - witchcraft? An old man decides at the last minute to give a valuable plot of land to the church instead of to his son, who had intended to use it to expand his business. The church decides to build a leper commune on the property, and numerous burghers are concerned about the damage this will do to their reputation and trade. The construction on the site is repeatedly disrupted by vandals. A ruinous fire breaks out at a goods warehouse in town. The town doctor is not from the area, is not fully accepted by the community, and is something of a quack; his son is in love with the daughter of the village hangman, a thoroughly unacceptable match. The hangman himself is forced by the town council to begin torturing a woman accused of witchcraft and the murder of the children, though this woman, a midwife, in fact helped in the birth of his own child. The town clerk wants all of this over and resolved before the representative of the Elector comes down from Munich. There is quite a lot going on in the little village of Schongau.

Throughout, the story is well imagined, and settings and situations redolent of the era, the atmosphere just right. People are forever tripping over chamber pots, the instruments of torture are not merely shown but used, the nature of herbal medicine both medicinal and spurious arise often, and the politics of a small Bavarian town very believable. Of course the fears of witchcraft and the kind of whispering campaigns that can destroy a village in a few weeks are front and center throughout the novel. The author himself is a descendant of the Kuisl family of hereditary village hangmen, which makes some of the characters historical, and which helps enhance his appreciation of the good and bad side of the family business of killing and torture.

This is first rate historical fiction, and a good mystery story as well.

A superb novel

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) If you're in the market for a refreshing twist in historical fiction, how about casting the protagonist as the local hangman who is also kind, compassionate, and wise, and when he's not crushing fingers in the thumbscrews or breaking bones on the wheel, he's mixing up potions and unctions, filling the homeopathic needs of the townsfolk? So it is with first time author Oliver Potzsch's "The Hangman's Daughter," a roller coaster ride through 17th century Bavaria on the coattails of Jakob Kuisl, the hangman of Schongau. A child - barely alive and not for long - is fished from the raging Lech River. A mysterious tattoo is crudely inscribed on his shoulder blade, leading to fears of witchcraft at work. The path leads back to the unfortunate Martha Stechlin, the gracious midwife to whom most of the town are in debt for the deliveries of their children. But Schongau is a superstitious town in a suspicious time where the horrors still linger from a witch hunt seventy years past that saw more than 60 local women burned at the stake. So Martha is hauled of to the town keep's dungeon, scheduled for "questioning" - with all the requisite tools - at the hands of the hulking Kuisl. That another child, bearing the same strange mark, turns up murdered while the midwife is in irons is of no consequence; the town's hysteria only escalates and a frightened populace clamors for Martha's confession and subsequent execution. Kuisl, however, is convinced of Stechlin's innocence and, certain that it is a serial killer and not the devil who's on the loose, strikes out with his daughter and a young physician to find the perpetrator before poor Martha is fried.

Potzsch tells a well-researched historical yarn with authority and plenty of action, rich in period detail from the politics and government of the war ravaged post-30 Year War Germany to the grisly tools and methods of the executioner to the herbs and ointments that served as remedies of the day. Readers familiar with Ariana Franklin's "mistress of the art of death" novels of Plantagenet England will find a lot to like here, as will fans of Umberto Eco's "Name of the Rose," or James Morrow's "The Last Witch Finder." Potzsch piles on the action to keep the pages turning, and serves up just enough education to keep away the guilty pleasure without degenerating to minutia. And while the ultimate plot unraveling may not win any prizes for irony or surprise, it certainly deserves high marks as a good old-fashioned thriller with plenty of suspense and just a hint of the supernatural. A somewhat uneven pace falters in spots, and If I were to quibble, I'd point out a few anachronisms in the language ("What's up?" and "screw around" in the 17th century?) but I'd fault clumsy translation more than the author. So while not a perfect novel, "The Hangman's Daughter" is an authentic and credible tale - a rollicking and raucous view of this unsettled slice of European history. Well done and well worth a read. Read more