Monday, February 14, 2011

The Hangman's Daughter - Oliver Pötzsch

I found this book via Amazon crossroads, which is an effort by Amazon to get English speaking people reading foreign books.  I think they might be trying to find the next Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I can't blame them for trying!

This is a historic crime novel that takes place in the 1600's in the Bavarian town of Schongau.  Basically, a few children are murdered, and the town council wants to blame the local midwife via witchcraft because they are found with a strange marking on their back that looks like the work of witchcraft.  The town Hangman, Jakob Kuisl takes it upon himself to prove the midwife innocent, and thus finds himself in the middle of a somewhat complicated plot involving someone from his past.

I can't go too much into the story without revealing plot twists, but I will say the character development of the Hangman, and his sidekick Simon the itinerant surgeon is excellent.  The plot gets a little tiresome here and there, but overall it is enjoyable.  The quaint town makes a great setting for a crime mystery, and the villain (whom they literally call "The Devil" is a great evil character).  The dark mood in this book is second only to The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

The book is translated from German.  I never know if the simplistic language is a function of the translation, or if that is what the author originally intended.  There are several chase scenes in the book, and each time as the person gets tired, the "metallic taste" in the person's mouth is mentioned.  I don't know if "metallic taste" is the German equivalent of sinew/sinewy (my least favorite overused term in American fiction).

Another cool part of this novel is that the author is actually related to the (fictional) main character, Jakob Kuisl.  Apparently the Kuisl's are a long line of hangmen in Bavaria.  One of the author's relatives was an amateur genealogist who traced the family back to the Kuisl's.

For less than $5 on the Kindle, I think this is a great value and a great read!

My next read is The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais - originally published in 1987.  Let's hear it for some old school crime fiction!

3 comments:

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    Taylor on June 4, 2013 at 10:52 PM said:
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    admin on June 20, 2013 at 9:42 PM said:
    Thanks for your feedback, I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one.

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