The Hangman's Daughter (UK Edition) (A Hangman's Daughter Tale)

Germany, 1660: When a dying boy is pulled from the river with a mark crudely tattooed on his shoulder, hangman Jakob Kuisl is called upon to investigate whether witchcraft is at play in his small Bavarian town. Whispers and dark memories of witch trials and the women burned at the stake just seventy years earlier still haunt the streets of Schongau. When more children disappear and an orphan boy is found dead―marked by the same tattoo―the mounting hysteria threatens to erupt into chaos.

Before the unrest forces him to torture and execute the very woman who aided in the birth of his children, Jakob must unravel the truth. With the help of his clever daughter, Magdelena, and Simon, the university-educated son of the town’s physician, Jakob discovers that a devil is indeed loose in Schongau. But it may be too late to prevent bloodshed.

A brilliantly detailed, fast-paced historical thriller, The Hangman‘s Daughter is the first novel from German television screenwriter Oliver Pötzsch, a descendent of the Kuisls, a famous Bavarian executioner clan.

Oliver Pötzsch spent a number of years as a radio personality for Bavarian Radio and is himself a descendant of a well-known line of Bavarian executioners.

Lee Chadeayne is a German-to-English literary translator. Most recently this includes The Settlers of Catan by Rebecca Gablé, a historical novel about the Vikings and their search for a new world, and The Copper Sign by Katja Fox, a medieval adventure in 12th-century England and France. As a scholar and student of both history and languages, especially Middle High German, he was especially drawn to the work of Oliver Pötzsch, author of the bestselling novel die Henkerstochter (The Hangman’s Daughter) a compelling and colorful description of customs and life, including love, murder, superstitions, witchery and political intrigue during early 17th-century Germany in a small Bavarian city.