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Jun 01, 2011

David rated it:

I really enjoyed this historical thriller. It gives us a snapshot into the life of medieval Germans. It just has a very authentic ring to it. Although, the translator uses some rather modern language here and there in his translation...it was originally written in German. In fact the authors family is the actual family of our hangman in the title. This hangman is a 5th generation executioner, a medicine man, and a tough guy. He and the mid-wife in the town share helpful solutions back and More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2011

Stacey rated it:

(Updated 1.30)
1.27.11 (20% read) Having a difficult time with this one. That's what I get for jumping on the popularity bandwagon. So far, the titular character has been on one page. ONE! WTF translators?!! Was this the original title? And it just feels a bit anachronistic, nothing (so far) I can really put a finger on, but I'm wondering if this is "new novelist" or "uninspired translation," or just plain sophomoric writing?

Meh. It'll get better, right? I h More...

6 comments like (24 people liked it)

Mar 31, 2011

Kristin rated it:

Actually reminds me a little of The Name of the Rose, but the main characters are secular. A surprisingly well-written and gripping free/very cheap Kindle find

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Jun 01, 2011

Brenda rated it:

This was definitely a page turner. I couldn't put the book down at times. The ending moved a little slow. This was the story about the executioner Jakob Kuisl and his mission to save the midwife Martha from a crime that she did not commit. Children were dying and on their backs were a witch’s symbol. They blamed the midwife for being a witch and had her arrested and tortured until she admitted that she committed the crime. Jakob knew that the midwife was innocent. Two children were murder More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jul 01, 2011

Israel rated it:

Un entretenido thriller de ficción histórica.

"The Hangman's Daughter" empieza un poco flojo, e incluso ya más avanzado pareciera no contar con la mejor de las traducciones, de hecho, el título pareciera no tener mucho sentido. En la realidad la hija del vergudo no pinta mucho en el asunto, son mucho más pertinentes su padre y jovén médico.

A pesar de estos detalles, el relato mejora considerablemente de la mitad en adelante, el thriller revive con mayor pertinenc More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 29, 2011

Israel rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 20, 2011

Carol rated it:

I loved this book. I thought the story of the handman's history was interesting. And the mystery of the killer kept me reading. I was surprised to find out, at the end of the book, the book is based on historical facts for the most part; as well as it being about his family history. We all want to know who our ancestors are; but to find out you can from a long line of hangman would be so shocking.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Apr 29, 2011

Linda rated it:

This was a good book. One cannot complain at all about lack of description of the venue nor the main characters. The author makes them very real. As well as the gore, which really turned me off. Maybe I should have expected it given the title, but the detail, I felt was a bit over the top. At some point it started to drag for me, maybe because I had figured out the "whodunnit part." Funny thing is "The Hangman" is my favorite character in this novel. It was very interesting More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2012

Teresa added it

I've given it 50 pages, and this book is so very mediocre, bordering on terrible that I can't give it any more. It has pretty much everything that annoys me in popular historical fiction. The good characters are all so very enlightened and modern--one of them even BATHES and believes in the circulatory system (so he's obviously good). The titular daughter has unruly hair and can READ (so she's obviously awesome). We also get the obligatory chamber pot reference, and did you all know that it was More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jun 01, 2011

Kim rated it:

Liked the story...it kept me guessing. I wasn't sure if it was a 3.5 star or 4, but I would have to choose on the higher end since I was mostly intrigued. I really liked the characters in the story. Lots of depth to them and some similarities between the heroes and villains. It saddens me to think of how people thought and acted in those times. If some sort of crime was committed, people were believed to be guilty even if at times they were proven innocent! And the wild stories of witchcraf More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2012

Kelly rated it:

This was a great book! It was so much fun to read this historical fiction. At the end of the book the author explains what is historically correct and how he was inspired to write this novel. I really enjoyed the main characters Simon and Jakob. Jakob was an inspiring character who stood for what he believed in and didn't succumb to the social pressures of being a hangman. There were some scenes of torture when the town arrest's Martha for witch craft. I thought it was so tender when Jak More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2011

Sarah rated it:

A pretty good, entertaining, fast-moving read. Another reviewer observed that even though the language is contemporary, it does a good job evoking a historical time period (17th century Bavaria), which I agree with. The author also includes "A Kind of Postscript" at the end, where we learn that the Kuisls were a real family, one of the "executioner dynasties" of the time, and the author descends from them. He notes that the descriptions of torture methods and the hangman's More...

0 comments like

Oct 18, 2011

Ann rated it:

There's been a lot of noise lately about Amazon bypassing major commercial publishers and publishing books directly themselves. Based on this deadly dull "thriller," major commercial publishing has nothing to worry about. I have no idea why it's called THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER, cause she doesn't play much of a role in the book. I have no idea why the translator of this book was chosen for the job, since he not only has zero understanding of pace but has no feel at all for the time per More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 18, 2011

Gene rated it:

While the meticulously-researched historical milieu of 17th Century small-town Bavaria is impressive and a fascinating window on the time, especially regarding the cultural, religious, and professional lives of its citizens, and I personally love a good witch trial investigated by a progressive executioner and aspiring doctor, the narrative itself is pretty poky through most of the book, with a long, slow middle, and with a solution to the mystery that's telegraphed hours ahead of time. Yes, th More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 12, 2011

Margaret rated it:

I suspect this book may deserve three stars, but I have to take one away because of the unbelievably leaden translation which nearly defeated my efforts to make it to the end. It's a galumphing and unhappy combination of ersatz period formality and strangely out of date contemporary slang ("they really get in each other's hair," "let's get some grub!", "Are you nuts?") that leaches all the energy and color out of what is otherwise a tidy little murder mystery with More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 29, 2011

Nikki rated it:

This is an incredibly interesting historical novel. You will not regret reading it!

I was skeptical of a book that was originally written in another language (German) and then translated to English. I had been concerned that it would be too literal, that certain turns of phrase would not read well in another language. I had been completely wrong!

Even after purchasing the book, I was undecided about reading it. I gave it the first chapter test. If after one chapter, I did not want to know wha More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 13, 2011

Christina rated it:

This is supposed to be a historical thriller but I kept waiting for the thrill. I'm not sure why it is even called the Hangman's Daughter, as she isn't really important to the story until the end. It is the story of a well educated and compassionate man who just happens to be the village hangman, and his efforts to uncover the murderer of several town orphans. The children all had a strange symbol tattoed on their bodies when they were found, and the villagers decide it is witchcraft and accus More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jun 16, 2011

Jeanne rated it:

This text is the first in a mystery series set in a small town in 17th century Germany. It centres on the actions of the town executioner, as he investigates the murder of a child, and deals with the surrounding accusations of witchcraft which begin to fly. He is assisted in his investigations by the educated son of the local doctor, and by his own, somewhat forceful daughter - hence the title.

The plot of the text is quite clever, and intriguing. The characters are fairly detailed a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 10, 2011

Crystal rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 05, 2011

Chad rated it:

I picked this book up because it's been quite the buzz for awhile and it was on sale for the Kindle. This is basically a fictionalized look at Oliver Potzsch's family history, which makes it very interesting.

The story is that of a Hangman, a necessary but shunned profession in the middle ages, and his daughter. The story is basically a detective novel set in medieval Bavaria. The town is rocked when children start turning up dead and a midwife is quickly arrested and charged with wit More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 19, 2011

Jon rated it:

I love historical fiction that offers an education about the time and environment, and this is a great example.

The author is descended from a family of hereditary hangmen in Germany. The first lesson is that in this age and place, hangmen had an important place in the legal system - they were the torturers, the headsmen, the executioners and the burners-at-the-stake. The occupation was hereditary and families were feared and isolated in their communities. So German history is repl More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 19, 2011

Tucker rated it:

This was a page-turner and rather fun. The author was exploring his personal ancestry, having discovered he was descended from a lineage of executioners in Germany.

He uses part of the plot of Danziger and Bierce's The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter which in turn was supposedly derived from a German folktale. Danziger and Bierce told the story of a Bavarian monk who fell in love with a beautiful young girl, Benedicta, who was a social outcast because her father was a hangman. The More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 09, 2011

Sarah rated it:

A bit out of my norm as a murder mystery, but the fact that this is a historical murder mystery made it a little more palatable as I usually don't have the patience (or interest) to find out Who Dun It. Though this book isn't titled very well (as Magdalena the Hangman's daughter is a fairly minor character most of the book) it is well paced, well researched, and gripping right from the first, and the translator did an excellent job of translating the book from it's original German while still re More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 07, 2011

Katie rated it:

This was really not as good as I thought it was going to be. For one thing, the hangman's daughter, Magdalena, was hardly in the book--and certainly didn't deserve the title role. It seemed like the author tried to make her a 'progressive' woman, but fell pretty far short, leaving her simpering, and useless for much besides soldier bait. For another, the plot read like it was written for a comic book. The hero--the hangman--always shows up in the nick of time with his proverbial cape a-swirl More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2011

Chris rated it:

First, the title of the book, at least in its English translation, is misleading. While the Hangman does have a daughter and she is a somewhat important character, she is not the central character. The central characters are, in fact, the Hangman and Simon, the doctor.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, the book has many, very many, overused plot devices. The hangman's daughter, for instance, is different from the other women in the novel, she is the equal of the More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2011

Kyle rated it:

This was an interesting read involving historical fiction, a murder mystery, a trial on witchcraft, and the somewhat grizzly details of a hangman's life. I didn't know an executioner in the 1600's was also responsible for torturing confessions out of prisoners. The book explains some of the tools of the trade such as thumb screws, pincers, etc. While the torture scenes might turn off some readers, I thought the author did a good job of alluding to the items and the pain, but didn't dwell on t More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 05, 2011

K.B. rated it:

I enjoyed the story, but it was rough reading at times. Certainly the flow could have been improved. And the prologue was problematic, in my opinion. In it we meet a young Johann Kuisl, but he bears little resemblance to the adult Kuisl in the rest of the book. I suppose it was meant to establish how Kuisl became a compassionate soul, but I don't think it did that well.

The main characters were mildly interesting, but I wish Kuisl, Simon, and Magdalena had more depth and were compell More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 08, 2010

Tony rated it:

This first book in a series of 17th-century German historical mysteries is a complete success that left me eager to read the next one as soon as its translated. After a brief prologue, the story opens in a small Bavarian town about 30 miles southwest of present-day Munich. It's about a decade after the end of the Thirty Years War, and one of that bloody war's veterans, Jakob Kuisl, holds the salaried post of town hangman (a job whose functions include execution, torture, and street-cleaning). Wh More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Jul 31, 2011

Sarah rated it:

Plot—4
The 17th century Bavarian setting was intriguing. I found myself looking up that era several times while reading the novel. The fact that Oliver Pötzsch, based the novel on his hangman ancestors was equally fascinating. The novel reminded me of The Heretic’s Daughter because Kathleen Kent based her book on her Salem-witch-accused ancestor. These novels also take place in the late 1600’s, and both reveal the horrors of group hysteria, misplaced religious fervor, and 17th century More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 28, 2011

Kevin rated it:

Some mild spoilers ahead, but nothing big:

Overall I didn't think this was a bad book while I was reading it, and I still don't. I have to say that to offset what comes below, which is a whole lot of criticism and not very many compliments. The setting was engaging and well-written. It's obvious that Pötzsch has done ample research into what life in a smallish city in mid-1600s Bavaria was truly like. The story flowed fast with no bogged-down sections so it made for a quick read. Th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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