The Hangman's Daughter - Oliver Poetzsch

Last fall, I reviewed The Dark Monk, which was the second in Poetzsch's series of novels starring his ancestor Jakob Kuisl, the executioner of Schongau. This is the first book.

This time around, a child is found dead, repeatedly stabbed, with what appears to be the Mark of Venus on his shoulder. Which gets everyone in Schongau riled up about witchcraft, and they quickly settle on local midwife Marta Stechlin as the witch in question. Except even after she's jailed, children - others who played together with Peter, the first victim - start turning up dead. This is also laid on Marta's head, regardless of the fact she's jailed. She's a witch after all (the question of why, if she has sufficient power to get the children killed, she doesn't escape rather than be tortured, is ignored, because people are superstitious dumbasses).

Kuisl and Simon Fronweiser, son of the local physician (stretching the term somewhat), both believe she's innocent, but are hard-pressed to find any evidence that will save her. They need to hurry, because the kids are being picked off one by one, and the prominent citizens want it wrapped up before the Landgrave arrives with his retinue, as that whole group will be supplied and cared for out of their pockets. The faster a solution can be reached, the faster he'll be on his way. If that solution can be reached with one death, rather than dozens in a hysterical witch burning frenzy, all the better.

Reading this made me aware of how well Poetzsch did to make the second book accessible to new readers. There weren't any particular revelations about the main characters - Simon, Kuisl, or his daughter Magdalena - that I hadn't learned in The Dark Monk. All the interconnections are established here, he simply went to the trouble of making sure they were fresh in the reader's minds in the sequel as well. The book breezes along, someone is always asking questions, snooping around, chasing or being chased.

Poetzsch uses Kuisl's time spent fighting in the Thirty Years' War more heavily in The Hangman's Daughter, but it's more relevant here than it was in The Dark Monk, so that makes sense. Also, I think Poetzsch has a reasonable amount of pride in his ancestor, and is trying to make certain points. The hangman is considered a dishonorable position, because he works with death and the dead (I don't remember this from the second book, but he's also apparently the garbageman). The end result is that everyone is nervous about talking to him - or being seen doing so, at least - and they cross themselves or look away as he passes. This doesn't stop them from expecting him to handle all these jobs, or keep them from coming to him with their maladies. And Kuisl's own experiences have taught him there's worse violence out there than the work a hangman does.

I feel Magdalena got the short shrift here. She's around a lot, but doesn't get to do much, other than sort of prod her father or Simon along. The times she comes to some important conclusion, one of the other two will have figured it out as well by the time she finds them. I think she fared better in The Dark Monk, so perhaps it's going to be a progressive increase in her role across the series. The third book is sitting in the box, I'll have to get to it here soon.