The Hangman's Daughter

What I liked about "The Hangman's Daughter" was how directly it dealt with the brutality of life in seventeenth century Bavaria. The work of the town hangman: torturing, breaking bones, and executing people with sword or rope or fire, is described with a graphic clarity that is not for the faint hearted.

"The Hangman's Daughter" illustrates both the mechanics by which superstition creates fear and channels it into hatred and the difficulty of combating this response in world were people have been raised to rely more on belief than reason and where the Church and the State both underwrite the existence of magic and actively pursue those who are believed to use it. The witch-hunt mentality is described as a smoldering fire that can be show more fanned into an inferno if the authorities fail to take the right action.

The political and social realities of the time (women as property and slightly less valuable than cattle, a class-ridden society where God, the torturer and the men with weapons are on the side of the property-owning classes, where orphans are cared for but seldom loved and where uneducated children run in packs in the streets) are described in a matter-of-fact way that is more disturbing than if the author had made the characters express anachronistic disapproval of the world they live in.

I got the sense that, in this recently war-torn land, peace, prosperity and the maintenance of the status quo where always under threat and that the most effective response to the threat was the judicious use of repressive, or at least retributive, violence by the State. People needed to be kept in their place or the world would devolve into the anarchy that they had lived through during the war years when soldiers ravaged the land. Of course, this is a world view that some of our leaders share even today.

The murders in the book are there to do more than set a "whodunnit?" puzzle, they are an opportunity to explore how little power people had over their own lives and to experience the impact of the belief systems of the time. Nevertheless, the plot is solid and, apart from a slightly irritating tendency to mislead the reader by playing with timelines, it is well told.

One thing that didn't work so well for me was the way in which the focus of the book moved from person to person, mainly the hangman, the young physician and the hangman's daughter, without really getting inside the heads of any of them: we are told what they're thinking and sometime what they're feeling but it's all a little at arm's length from their emotions.

Despite the title, this book is not primarily about or told from the perspective of the hangman's daughter. The hangman's daughter is not a modern kick-ass amateur detective heroine dressed in a period costume. Yet the character of the young woman: curious, brave, strong-willed, playful and secure in her own worth despite being reviled by the people of the town, told me more about the hangman than anything else in the book. show less

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 show more 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. show less

This is a well-plotted historical mystery, in which the detectives race against time to find the people responsible for several murders before the town's midwife is burned for having committed the crimes via witchcraft. The tension keeps things taught throughout, each setback for the heroes causing a groan of frustration, each delay of the midwife's trial a sigh of relief. The principal characters are complex and believable, too, although many of the minor ones are little more than sketches. On story alone I'd rate this at four stars.

The book loses a star for me, however, due to some narrative annoyances. Apparently the author does not believe that his readers can remember which neighborhood is the good one (where the rich people show more leave), or why it's good (it's far from the tanners' sheds and similarly stinky trades), and has to remind us each time someone goes there. We likewise must be reminded, every time it appears on scene, of the impressive size and quality of one character's library. There are similar issues throughout, giving the impression that the author doesn't expect much intelligence or engagement from his readers; a shame, really, since those moments were the primary things that disengaged me from the book, and there were a couple points at which I just set the book aside for a day or two to let the annoyance fade.

Still, on balance it was worth a read, and I'm looking forward to reading the next one in the series. show less

An excellent story of how politics and superstition in seventeenth-century Germany can turn a brutal murder into a horrific witch-hunt. When a young boy is found murdered with what appears to be a witch's mark on his shoulder, the outraged townspeople immediately mob the local midwife, who is saved - temporarily - by the intervention of the local executioner, Jakob Kuisl. The aldermen of the village, following the lead of the court clerk, determine that the best thing for the town is to force a confession of witchcraft from the unfortunate woman, then burn her. She is accordingly turned over to Kuisl for the administration of torture, and eventual execution.

But Kuisl is convinced the midwife is innocent, and with the assistance of the show more local physician, sets out to find the real killer(s). Written well, with a great deal of detail about place and purpose in German society of this period, THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER is an excellent historical mystery. show less

Simply put, The Hangman’s Daughter is a romp through life in 17th century Bavaria. This historical fiction work centers on the sudden murders of a couple of orphans who have formed an alliance with other orphans as well as the village midwife who befriends them. When the remaining orphans go missing, the market goes up in flames and the partially built leper’s house vandalized, it is easy for village leaders to blame it on witchcraft and the midwife becomes the target of their frenzy. However, like most things in life, the real problem comes down to money and greed and in the end the Hangman, along with the help of the physician’s son, restores order by paradoxically saving the presumed witch from death at the stake. Actually, show more more interesting than the plot is the portrayal of the daily intricacies of life during that time. Creature comforts have vastly improved since then but as we all know greedy, murderous creatures still remain to this day. show less

Absolutely gripped for 3/4 of the story, but the ending left me dissatisfied. Also, I don't understand why it's called "The Hangman's Daughter" when she doesn't do anything except serve as sexual interest to other characters. So 4 stars is a little high, really more like 3.5, but a galloping plot really counts for a lot with me. Also, I like the postscript where the author recounts his connection to this tale.

The Hangman’s Daughter is the first in a series of seven historical mysteries. It is set in Schongau, Germany in the 1650s, after the Thirty Years’ War. The main protagonists are Jakob Kuisl, the town’s hangman, his daughter, Magdalena, and Simon, Fronwieser, the town doctor’s son, who is also training to be a doctor. Pötzsch is a descendent of the Kuisl line of hangmen, who worked throughout Barvaria. He illuminates hangmen’s liminal status, showing how they were shunned because of their role, but also given a certain amount of deference because of the societal need for that role. There’s romantic tension between Simon and Magdalena. Their relationship is forbidden because of her low status as the hangman’s daughter.

The show more mystery pulls in all the tensions of the times: poverty and economic depression, disease, orphans, mercenaries, town rivalries, fears of witches, and surveillance. The ending drug out a bit, but in a way it added to the verisimilitude of people with no investigative authority (the hangman and the doctor) navigating the situation in which the powerful aldermen are more interested in easy answers than justice.

Despite the title, Magdalena had a smaller role than Simon or Jakob. I hope her character develops more in the next book show less