Writer Oliver Potzsch has quickly become one of my favorite authors. It all started
when I read his novel “The Hangman’s Daughter” - I was instantly captivated by the
characters so richly drawn and in the settings that were not fictional but real places that I
could perhaps one day visit in Bavaria. Potzsch uses his own family history, he comes from
a long line of Hangmen, to create engaging mysteries that are the epitome of a page
turner. So it was to my pleasant surprise that while he had fallen off my radar he had been
busy with the Hangman’s Daughter Tales and had written three more stories bringing the
anthology to four. (As I write this the 5th book in the series is about to be released) When I
was about to embark on a long road trip I thought it would be a great idea to take in his
second book “The Dark Monk” via audio. He delivered as usual keeping me on the edge
of my seat, wondering who might be behind the nefarious going ons, all the while
continuing to build the lives of the series’ main characters, Jakob Kuisl, the Hangman of 1
Schongau, his daughter Magdalena, and her love interest Simon Fronweiser, son of the
town’s doctor. Having never lost the love of actually holding a book in hand, I immediately
bought books 3 & 4 in the series. And that brings me to my review of the third book in the
“Hangman’s Daughter Tales” - “The Beggar King”.
As in the previous tales Kuisl, Magdalena and Simon find themselves thrown in the
deep end of a mystery. When the Hangman of Schongau has been lured into a trap in the
city of Regensburg, his very life is on the line as he is framed for murder and must face the
Regensburg Hangman in his torture chamber, a process Kuisl knows all to well. Simon and
Magdalena pressed by the societal unrest in Schongau, due to what is viewed as their
unholy romance, flee to Regensburg, a city full of new possibilities. Yet upon arrival they
realize that their plans have been dramatically curtailed as they must find a way to save her
father from the gallows. Potzsch expertly weaves his story through the history of the 7th
century giving the reader a glimpse of what life was like then and yet all the while keeping
us enthralled in trying to solve the mystery he has presented. You can almost smell the
damp, dank streets, the excrement, the smoke and the ale. Like every good mystery writer
Potzsch takes us on a path with various twist, turns and dead-ends as we find ourselves all
too often coming to the wrong conclusions about “who done it”. But without fail all is
revealed in the end but not before our characters are taken on a rough and tumble journey,
risking their own hides at almost every turn and we are thankfully transported along with
them.
I recommend reading the series from book one, “The Hangman’s Daughter”, so that
you can follow the progress of the main characters lives; but know that each book can stand
on it’s own even if you have little or no knowledge of what came before. I’m off to buy
book five - happy reading!
Book Review by Michael R. Harris
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THE CONE - ISSUE #7 - FALL 2015