4.25 stars

In the late 17th century, the hangmen of Bavaria are gathering just outside Munich for their guild council. They don’t often get to meet because, being the dishonourables that they are, no one wants to host their meetings. On this occasion, they happen to be near Munich as the dead bodies of two young girls are discovered, murdered in various styles of execution from the time. As more bodies are found, the hangmen, of course, are suspected. Jakob Kuisl, his daughter Magdalena, and her doctor husband Simon, try to help figure out what it going on.

Meantime, there is also a group of people distributing counterfeit money, and Simon (whose reputation as a mystery-solver has preceded him) has been asked to find the lost dog of a local “royal” family. Really, this turns out to be the young prince’s dog, who befriends Simon and Magdalena’s son, Peter. And Jakob’s younger daughter, Barbara, is at an age where she should be getting married; although, Magdalena was lucky and found someone above her station, Barbara is likely to have to marry one of the other executioners or their sons.

I really like this series and I feel like it gets better and better. I believe I am now caught up in the series, so it’s hard to say when I will get to the next one (I am assuming there will continue to be more – I hope!). The book switches points of view (though never first-person) quite often, but I like that it gives me the feel of all of these things happening, as different characters go about their business, at the same time. Of course, for suspense, it often cuts to a different character/scene just as something exciting is about to happen or happens. ( )

Consternation in the Hangman's Guild!

The Kuisl family travels to the Munich of 1672. Jakob, has a Hangman's Guild meeting--The Council of Twelve. However as usual nothing is ever simple with the Kuisls. But then that's the norm for the empire's executioners. Needed and yet despised, seen as the lowest of the low by the empire's citizens.
It seems a serial killer is at large murdering young women in a series of bizarre ways. Simon, Magdalena's physician husband has written a treatise on cleanliness and well-being that he's trying to bring to bring to the attention of a famous physician in Munich. Jakob has decided to marry his daughter Barbara to a fellow hangman (against her loud protests!). Magdalena gets caught up in a Bavarian silk factory scandal that takes her into danger, her son Peter meets a prince and Paul makes the acquaintance of a lively gang of street boys.
As murder stalks the streets of Munich, the Hangman's Guild becomes entangled.
A fabulous look at the times, laws and customs of Munich and Bavaria. Well researched and as always with the Hangman's Daughter series, a fascinating and strong read!

A NetGalley ARC ( )

In 1672, the executioners of Bavaria are having a meeting of the Council of Twelve, a prestigious group- well, as prestigious as a hangman can be in a time and place where they are considered dishonorable and tainted. Jakob Kuisl takes his entire family there- his married daughter Magdalena, her physician husband Simon, her three children, and his unmarried daughter Barbara, with the thought of finding her a husband there in Munich. The fact that Barbara is already pregnant, and doesn’t even want to get married, complicates matters. Jakob’s son Georg, apprenticed to a hangman of a different city, is also there. Simon is there in hopes of finding a sponsor for his thesis about preventing infections. These strands weave around and into the mystery, which is that young women are turning up dead, all with a certain medallion and all killed in ways that executioners use on female criminals. Of course, the town’s suspicions turn to the group of hangman in their midst. They fear the despised executioners have unleashed a devil on the town.

As Jakob tries to unravel the mystery before the executioners become the executed by mob, more women are found dead- as is one of the hangmen’s own. How are these women connected? What is the common thread? Meanwhile, Magdalena has become embroiled in another mystery and has gone undercover in a silk mill, from which there may be no escape.

I loved this book. I did not realize when I asked for the book that it was the 7th in a series, but the author made the family relationships clear right away and I was able to jump right in without feeling I was missing anything. Potzsch deftly handles the multiple threads of plot (I haven’t mentioned them all; there are simple too many) and never drops the many balls he’s juggling. He paints a vivid picture of the time and place- all too vivid at times, a lot of things being rather gross and grim back then. From street girls to the royal court, everyone seems to be involved. The story is full of action and the characters all come to life. Five stars. ( )