4 - The Poisoned Pilgrim

1666: The monastery at Andechs has long been a pilgrimage destination, but when the hangman’s daughter, Magdalena, her doctor husband Simon, and their two small children arrive there, they learn that the monks have far larger concerns than saying Mass and receiving alms. It seems that once again, the hangman’s family has fallen into a mysterious and dangerous adventure. Two monks at the monastery experiment with cutting edge technology, including a method of deflecting the lighting that has previously set the monastery ablaze. When one of the monks disappears and his lab is destroyed, foul play is suspected. Who better to investigate than the famed hangman Jakob Kuisl? But as the hangman and his family attempt to solve the mystery of the missing monk, they must deal with both the eccentric denizens of the monastery and villagers who view the monks’ inventions as witchcraft that must be destroyed at all costs. This thrilling fourth entry of The Hangman’s Daughter series features scheming monks, murderous robots, and the action and intrigue that never seem to cease when the Kuisls are on a case.From Publishers WeeklySet in Bavaria in 1666, Pötzsch’s stellar fourth Hangman’s Daughter mystery (after The Beggar King) features three unlikely sleuths: hangman Jakob Kuisl; his daughter, Magdalena; and Magdalena’s husband, Simon Fronweiser, a “bathhouse medicus” in the town of Schongau. Magdalena and Simon, the parents of two boys, leave the children with Magdalena’s parents in order to undertake a pilgrimage to the monastery at Andechs—a trip that turns out to be anything but spiritual. When Coelestin—a novitiate who stumbled onto a horrific heresy—drowns, his death is deemed accidental, until Simon notices marks of violence on the corpse. More deaths follow, and the arrest of Brother Johannes, an old friend of Kuisl, prompts the executioner to leave his ailing wife to come to Johannes’s aid. The author maintains tension throughout as the trio seeks to unravel the intricate scheme behind the killings, which are connected to a lifelike human automaton. —Reviewed on 05/27/2013. From Library JournalMagdalena Kuisl and her husband Simon have embarked on a religious pilgrimage to the Bavarian Holy Mountain, leaving their young boys in her parents’ care. This trip goes awry when the duo encounters violence, including a bell tower attack on Magdalena, and three apparent murders. When a monk is wrongfully jailed for the murders, he confides in Magdalena that he’s a former hangman and begs her to get her father, Jakob, to come help. Within days, religious pilgrims will be mobbing the site for the annual Festival of The Three Hosts, unaware that some monks are stripping the monastery of its priceless treasures. Meanwhile, time is running out for the Kuisls in their hunt for the real murderer. VERDICT: Word-of-mouth popularity is richly deserved for Pötzsch’s historical series (after The Beggar King) about a Bavarian hangman and his family, based loosely on the author’s forebears. He creates an intoxicating mix with frenetic pacing, strong doses of adventure and wit, and 17th-century historical detail. The hefty length doesn’t detract from vivid storytelling along the lines of Katherine Neville and William Dietrich. —Reviewed on 07/01/2013.