Book 3 in the series. Like I wrote in my reviews of the first two books: It's best to read the books in chronological order, or you will miss background information on the main character, the Bastard of Kosigan and his gang, on the secondary characters (especially with regards to the Inquisition period), and even more on the characters and events that take place in 1899-1900 with the heir of Pierre Cordwain de Kosigan aka the Bastard.

You can find my reviews of the first two books here ([b:L'Ombre du pouvoir|21417064|L'Ombre du pouvoir (Le Bâtard de Kosigan #1)|Fabien Cerutti|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1394488252s/21417064.jpg|40718297]) and here ([b:Le Fou prend le Roi|26106270|Le Fou prend le Roi|Fabien Cerutti|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1439672713s/26106270.jpg|45244891]).

The first two books have a more or less closed end, at least with regards to the story-line of the Bastard. Book 3, roughly translatable as "The Hammer of the Witches / The Witches' Hammer", meaning the Catholic Church doing everything in its power (legal or illegal, doesn't matter) to eradicate ancient/pagan beliefs involving sacrifices, rituals, beliefs in supernatural creatures (what we nowadays would catalogue under fantasy, imaginary, ... like elves, fairies, orcs, and so on. Or in one word: Inquisition (Wikipedia-link).

Again, Mr Cerutti has collected some historical information, but has brewed his cocktail by adding elements of fantasy to it and mixing it all, so that you can't find a direct reference to what happened in the past. But as we all know, the Church has committed many crimes to acquire and spread its power, has influenced and converted many people (on penalty of death, for example) to forget about and dismiss their until then current beliefs and faith. One family under God, so to speak. How noble.

Our Bastard, Pierre Cordwain de Kosigan, has fled (or travelled) to Germany, to Cologne in particular, after his travels in France and Belgium in the previous books. While he's still seeking information on his mother's activities and past, he remains a hired gun, so to speak. This time, he takes on two assignments and hopes to hit two birds with one stone, although those birds - Dagmar-Karl von Hohenstaufen (duke of Cologne and Westphalia, and important candidate for the imperial throne) and Willie Stein (an important sorceress/witch) - are neither each other's friends nor should they know about the Bastard's agenda.

Let's see if I can summarise this, one way or another: a young witch (Yannia Königin) was kidnapped and tortured by the dark forces of Juan Ginès de Las Casas (nicknamed Le Marteau des sorcières - hence the book's title), cardinal of the High-Office of the Inquisition, who's ultimate goal is world domination. Officially, he comes across as friendly, but dangerous, while behind the scenes he has installed a dark and evil group (or club) to go on a witch-hunt. Willie Stein wants the Bastard to free Yannia Königin from the clutches of Las Casas, and when possible, also kill Las Casas, which von Hohenstaufen also commanded him to do - thank you, Lianne Pheno, because I had forgotten about von Hohenstaufen's mission (also involving the Bastard to track down the witches who had gone underground since the rise of the Inquisition), as a large part of the story focused more on liberating Yannia Königin.

The Bastard was now also very much involved in managing the different actions and tactics, didn't take much time to sleep or even eat, but constantly reviewed his steps, his tactics, .... Intrigue, espionage, a bit of love (he remains a womanizer, after all) and manipulation, theft, action, you get it all. Hanging Cliff makes sure that you don't know what happens to our Bastard when he has returned Yannia to her people, so to speak. He's lead into a forest, lead underground under the river Rhine, into a tunnel with beautiful, blue tiles. What is the function of the tunnel? Why did the witches bring him here? And why does Laura Stein, Willie's sister, look like Hildane von Brine?

Also, our Bastard has his back always covered, as you can imagine. He's not loved by everyone, after all. And others are sent out on different missions, since Pierre can't be at five places at the same time.

This third instalment also spends more space to elaborate on Kergaël's situation in AD 1899. As you may remember from the previous books, there are other competitors in league to acquire information about Kosigan's writings and experiences. As more research uncovers the mysteries of the Inquisition and the Church's role as described higher, Kergaël's life is also more at stake. At some point, he's even kidnapped to Scotland, in the vicinity of Glasgow. Luckily he can secretly use the telephone in one of the rooms of the large house in which he's kept prisoner, to pass on further information he's gained from the proprietor. Unfortunately, there's a dark scheme behind Kergaël's kidnapping and when the house is set on fire, he can escape, yet has to jump from a few stories high. Did he survive? No further information is available. Damn you, hanging cliff.

'Le Marteau des sorcières' should have been one book, but as it would then be too thick, it was split into two. It is thus of the essence, thanks to the hanging cliffs, that one reads [b:Le Testament d'involution|40222016|Le Testament d'involution (Le Bâtard de Kosigan, #4)|Fabien Cerutti|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1527442334s/40222016.jpg|62461673] as soon as possible. It was released in June this year and concludes the first part of the series. The Testament of Involution was briefly mentioned in book 3.

Just like the first two books, I can highly recommend this third one. The suspense, the action, the writing style, the excitement, and, yes, the little bits of history all make this book and series more than worth your while. ( )