The Poisoned Pilgrim: A Hangman’s Daughter Tale by Oliver Potzsch

This is the fourth and last book in the Hangman’s Daughter series, set in Bavaria in the Seventeenth Century. They all feature the Hangman of Schongau, Jakob Kuisl, his daughter Magdalena, and her husband,  medicus Simon Fronweiser.

In this book, Simon and Magdalena go on a religious pilgrimage to a monastery at Andechs. Upon their arrival, they are confronted with a drowned novitiate whose death is declared an accident – until Simon notices signs of violence on the body.  Brother Johannes, one of the monks, is arrested for his death, but as it turns out, Johannes is an old friend of Jakob Kuisl. Johannes begs  Magdalena to send for her father, because he, Johannes, is innocent and needs his old friend to help him prove it.

What follows is an convoluted story of intrigue, torture, thievery, murder most foul, scientific experimentation, and automata.  The monks and villagers view the latter as witchcraft, so Jakob and family must contend with superstition and fear as they try to find out who is behind all the plots and twists and turns they uncover.

Magdalena’s children are kidnapped and used as leverage in an unholy scheme, but in the end Jakob Kuisl, aided by Magdalena and Simon, solves the mystery and rescues brother Johannes and the children, although not before he is tortured, and the cathedral is burned to the ground.

I enjoyed this series, but it has some grisly, unsavory scenes, being true to an era when every town in Bavaria had its own hangman, whose job it was to determine those responsible for crimes by torturing them until they confessed.

 512 pages

The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch

Historical Fiction set in Bavaria in the 1600's, this is the first novel in the Hangman's Daughter series. Jacob Kuisl is the official town hangman in Schongau, Germany. As hangman, he must torture anyone accused of a crime in order to get a confession.

It was a dark age in which witches and devils were believed to cause most ills visited upon humankind. And those accused were usually tortured until they confessed, in which case they were killed by the hangman, or until they died from the torture.

Then children begin to be killed, and his friend, the midwife, is accused of killing the children through witchcraft. Jacob, his daughter Magdalena, and Simon, a young surgeon, believe she is innocent, and set about to find the killers. While Jacob is frantically trying to find the real killers, he is forced to torture the midwife, or lose his job.

In the meantime, Magdalena and Simon, while helping the hangman in his quest for the truth, are falling in love, although it
is illegal for them to marry; although hangmen are necessary, they are
also untouchables, and can only marry within the society of hangmen.

The author is descended from a family of hangmen, and has done a lot
of research into that period of time. The books have been translated from
German. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it isn't for the faint of heart.



448 pages