The Hangman's Daughter (The Hangman's Daughter, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Dec 08, 2010 Tony rated it it was amazing

Shelves: translated-fiction, novels

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 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). When an orphaned child is found murdered with a strange symbol on his shoulder, rumors of witchcraft engulf the town, the local midwife is arrested, and Jakob is ordered to torture a confession from her.

However, Jakob and the midwife are more or less friends, making the task an extremely unpleasant one -- especially since he knows she's not a witch. This motivates him to uncover the truth about the child's murder before he has to torture her too harshly. He is joined in his poking around by the 20ish son of the local hack doctor, with whom he shares a love of books, human anatomy, and a more rationalist mind than most in town. As the hangman and young doctor nose around, other crimes occur, including vandalism, arson, and further attacks on orphans -- all of which only whips up the hysteria in the town and brings it ever-closer to a literal witchhunt.

The story is a well-paced mix of intrigue and action, with a lot of different things going on, and very high stakes. The hangman is a great character, and the young doctor makes for a nicely contrasting sidekick. The villain is truly villainous, and the various supporting characters are all nicely drawn, including the titular character, whose budding romance with the young doctor provides another dimension to things. But what really makes the book is the excellent sense of time and place -- if you like reading historical fiction to learn about unfamiliar eras, this is really worth your time. There's lot of great stuff ranging from large-scale social mores to tiny details about daily life and hints of the coming Enlightenment. The author has mentioned his admiration for the great fantasy and science-fiction writer Fritz Leiber, and in this book he echoes the dark and at times savage tone of Leiber's excellent Lankhmar stories.

Hopefully the book will reach a wide enough audience to convince the publisher that translating the next two in the series (The Black Monk and The King of Beggars) is worth doing. ...more

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May 20, 2020 Te-ge Bramhall rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, 2020-favs, history

I shouldn’t wait so long between finishing a book and writing a review. I had to look up which book this was, and then I was like, “Oh, yeah. I definitely need to write about that one. It was good.”

So, at the end of this book, the author explains something that likely would have changed how I read the story. It wouldn’t have influenced how much I enjoyed it, just…I’d know going in that it was historical fiction (even if it’s in a rather broad sense of the term). The story is about the author’s m ...more

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Oct 27, 2012 alana rated it liked it

Shelves: ebook

The Hangman's Daughter is a sold, historical murder mystery set in mid-1600s Bavaria. Josef Kuisl, as executioner for the small town of Schongau, finds himself at the center of a potential witch hunt as local children become the target of a mysterious killer.

Oliver Potzsch, a descendent of the Kuisl family of executioners, based the novel on his real ancestors while taking liberties with the plotline. Those readers who enjoy thrillers or German history should have a look at The Hangman's Daug ...more

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May 17, 2012 Sarah rated it liked it

This is more like a 2.5. I'm luke-warm about it. I didn't find the mystery so mysterious, but that could be more due to the 2 months it took me to read it rather than the writing. ...more

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