![]() ![]() ![]() 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. 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. 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. ![]() Whispers and dark memories of witch trials and the women burned at the stake just seventy years earlier still haunt the streets of Schongau. Add into that Pötzschs own connections to the characters - the titular hangman, Jacob Kuisl, is Pötzschs ancestor. 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. Oliver Pötzschs The Hangmans Daughter was a pleasant little surprise - a piece of historical fiction that wore its research smoothly, using it all in service of a solid thriller that could easily appeal to a modern audience. ![]()
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