The Hangman's Daughter

A Hangman's Daughter Tale, Book 1

By: Oliver Pötzsch, Lee Chadeayne - translator

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2011 Oliver Pötzsch, Lee Chadeayne (translation) (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

great read

this story really drew me in, i loved it! i hope there will be more books in this series

Enjoyed the story and audio performance

I'm not usually into witch hunt stories but this one was pretty good. I liked the daughter in here as she was quick witted and funny. I'd listen to it again.

Loved the History and Intrigue!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, and I have several times. I even bought it as a Christmas gift for my father.

What does Grover Gardner bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He has a great way of speaking and it was nice to hear how the names were supposed to be said instead of the way they read in my language. Such as the character "Simon" which sounds more like "Zeeman". I highly recommend it.

Any additional comments?

The author provided a very diverse set of characters and told the story from all of their different angles, and it was full of detail and background information that lead to a very intriguing tale and colorful world to both get lost in and be horrified by.

Nice story. Excellent performance.

This is a nice story, which keeps attracting the reader's couriosity at every turn of page. The performance of the narrator is great.

Fascinating!

Set in 1659, in the small town of Schongau in Bavaria, Germany, more than one child has been murdered and they bear an unusual mark on their shoulders. The town’s hangman, Jakob Kuisl, is ordered to torture a confession out of the town midwife, Marta, who is suspected of witchcraft. Jakob doesn’t believe it and starts to dig into the mystery, finding far more devilish behavior than he expected.

I really enjoyed this novel. The mix of murder mystery, historical fiction, and the suspicion of witchcraft really grabbed a hold of me. I had never thought too much of who, in general, was in charge of executions, torturing, and other punishments (like cutting off a hand) and this book really opened my eyes to how Bavaria handled that. It was a family trait, the hangmen in general considered to be lowly men. It was near impossible to marry out of the trade and so hangmen families kept in touch throughout the area, often arranging marriages among their children. This aspect of the book really fascinated me and Kuisl (which rhymes with ‘weasel’ so it’s just fun to say) was a great character through which to get to know more about hangmen in Bavaria in the 1650s.

Jakob’s daughter, Magdelena, is close to marrying age. She’s clever and rather independent, her father’s station, lowly but untouchable, gives her some protection for going about unattended. Now my one little quibble with this book is the title, The Hangman’s Daughter. Really, this book is about Jakob and not about Magdelena. Indeed, she has a rather minor role. While the women are interesting in this book, they don’t get the spotlight and almost never call the shots. Yes, the title did pull me in, but it is also a bit misleading.

Other than that tiny criticism, I found it difficult to put this book down. Simon is the other main character. He’s the son of the town physician, but unlike his father, he attended a medical university. He’s fascinated by Jakob’s book collection, which contains books that traditional physicians reject. Simon doesn’t believe that bleeding a patient does any good, unlike his father. This dichotomy of what was considered true medical knowledge was on good display with Simon and his father.

Of course, then we have the midwife, Marta, who’s been accused of witchcraft. Early on, we know that one of the prominent town politicians doesn’t believe she is a witch but he feels Marta must be sacrificed to avoid a break out of hysteria, such as there was 70 years prior that resulted in so many being tortured and burned at the stake. Jakob, as the town’s hangman, is in a very difficult position. If he doesn’t carry out his sworn duty to the town (to torture the midwife), he could be dismissed, which would result in he and his family being turned out of the town. I really felt for Jakob! He had plenty of hard decisions to make, but once he set on a course he carried it out to the best of his ability. Nearly from the beginning, there was plenty of tension in the story because Jakob had only so much time to find the real culprit.

There was more than one piece to this mystery. Jakob and Simon have their hands full trying to get information out of townsfolk and orphan children even as they hunt down the supposed devil. Magdelena adds a few bits of knowledge here and there but is mostly a love interest. The scenes with Marta were the most touching and also chilling. Jakob does his best to minimize the damage, but he can’t be seen assisting her or even holding back. Towards the end, I was biting my nails as Jakob and Simon raced against a clock to save not only Marta but some of the remaining orphan children. The ending was quite satisfying and I was very pleased to learn there are several more books in this series. The translation was quite good. There was only one or two instances where I wondered if such a modern word was the right translation, but these few instances did not detract from the story at all.

I accessed a free copy of this audiobook through the Kindle Unlimited program.

The Narration: Grover Gardner made a great Jakob Kuisl. There were plenty of German words and names in this book and he did a splendid job in pronouncing them. His female voices were pretty good as well. His ability to imbue a character with emotions was put on display with Jakob’s scenes with Marta.

Loved it!

I loved it...it was a very interesting story. Loved the historical nature. Will recommend it.

Good stuff

Very entertaining read. Interesting plot line and characters were well developed. Can't wait to move to the next book in the series.

Solid!

This is a great, solid mystery novel set in the 1600s in, if I'm correct, Bavaria.

I do have a couple of issues though.

1.) Why is this called the Hangman's Daughter? I don't get it. Is the title poorly translated? The daughter is in the story but she is not the main character, nor does she really drive the story with the exception of being the love interest of the young doctor and getting into a bit of trouble. It has very little to do with her.

2.) The narrator forgets the voices he's doing for certain people or drops them altogether randomly and it can be a bit confusing. He has a good tone for each character but randomly when conversation is happening he'll use one voice for another person or just not use any inflection and I have to concentrate to figure out who was talking. Other than that, I thought he did an excellent job.

I have no complaints about the pacing or content of the story. Everything was well written and if you're into 1600s mysteries and witch trials this will be right up your alley. It's very much a period piece.

Interesting characters

The character development was different, which makes it a pretty interesting read. I would recommend it.

Very Enjoyable with Gothic touches.

It was different and I loved that it gave hints to help us work out the plot. I liked most of the characters. I am writing the review quite some time after listening to it, however I do not think I had any issues with the narrator. It did start better than it ended and I may read another. The author may improve and smooth out his writing as the series progresses. I liked the character of Jakob he seemed well developed. His daughter and the doctor had some inconsistent flaws, possibly we lose something in translation. In general a solid 4 stars.