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The hangman's daughter / Oliver Pötzsch ; translated by Lee Chadeayne.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Original language: German Publication details: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011.Edition: 1st Mariner Books edDescription: 435 p. : map ; 21 cmISBN:
  • 054774501X (pbk.)
  • 9780547745015 (pbk.)
Uniform titles:
  • Henkerstochter. English
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Summary: Germany, 1659: 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 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.
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Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Vol info Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Mystery Potzsch Oli HD 1 Available 33111006800664
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Taking us back in history to a place where autopsies were blasphemous, coffee was an exotic drink, dried toads were the recommended remedy for the plague, and the devil was as real as anything, New York Times bestselling author Oliver Pötzsch's The Hangman's Daughter is the rollicking start to an exciting series of historical mysteries, bringing to cinematic life the sights, sounds, and smells of seventeenth-century Bavaria, telling the engrossing story of a compassionate hangman who will live on in readers' imaginations long after they've put down the novel.Magdalena, the clever and headstrong daughter of Bavarian hangman Jakob Kuisl, lives with her father outside the village walls and is destined to be married off to another hangman's son -- except that the town physician's son is hopelessly in love with her. And her father's wisdom and empathy are as unusual as his despised profession. It is 1659, the Thirty Years' War has finally ended, and there hasn't been a witchcraft mania in decades. But now, a drowning and gruesomely injured boy, tattooed with the mark of a witch, is pulled from a river and the villagers suspect the local midwife, Martha Stechlin. Jakob is charged with extracting a confession from her and torturing her until he gets one. Convinced she is innocent, Jakob, Magdalena, and her would-be suitor race against the clock to find the true killer. Approaching Walpurgisnacht, when witches are believed to dance in the forest and mate with the devil, another tattooed orphan is found dead and the town becomes frenzied. More than one person has spotted what looks like the devil -- a man with a hand made only of bones. The hangman, his daughter, and the doctor's son face a terrifying and very real enemy.

"First published in Germany in 2008 by Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH as Die henkerstochter"--T.p. verso.

"Mariner Books."

Germany, 1659: 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 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.

English translation from German.

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