FOUR STARS

First published in 2008

by Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH as Die Henkerstochter

Translated from the German by Lee Chadeayne

Historical Fiction/Mystery/Thriller

My soft cover Publisher: AmazonCrossing 2010
435 pages

This book has been waiting patiently, in my TBR stack for over a year, and somehow got lost in the shuffle of things. Why I never read it until now will forever remain a mystery.

This is a gripping story of Jakob Kuisl, a compassionate executioner, who in-fact actually existed. Oliver Potzsch is a direct descendent of the Kuisl dynasty of executioners, and through his words, takes us into seventeenth-century Bavaria. Potzsch has created a puzzle for the reader to solve, weaving historical real life medieval characters with a fictitious page turner of a tale.

A young boy is found murdered, and the midwife (believed to be a witch) has been accused of his death. But Jakob Kuisl is not so sure. Against time, and with the help of Simon, who soon becomes Watson to Kuisl’s Holmes, sets out to claim her innocence. Nothing is clear-cut, and red herrings abound as the two become embroiled in a more sinister back-story.

I was sorry to see this book end. I am, however, stymied at why Potzsch chose The Hangman’s Daughter as the title, when clearly she has no pivotal role in the telling.

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