Review: The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch

In a small town in 17th century Germany, orphaned children are being murdered and an innocent woman is being blamed as a witch. With few allies and the hysteria rising, the town's executioner and physician team up to find the real killer.

An oddly titled novel, since although the hangman's daughter does play a role in this, she is not the central character. It's told in third-person from mostly the points of view of the hangman himself, the town's young physician, and a few other characters. The title misnomer didn't bother me very much though, what bothered me was the lack of cultural details, and the occasionally stilted dialogue and narration, which I assume was due to the translation. With this being set in a small 17th century German town, I was hoping to see more of the culture come through, but it really could have been set anywhere during the 17th century. I did find the information about executioners and physicians during this time period interesting, but I felt like that would have been true for any European small town, not just Germany. The book is apparently based on the author's own ancestors, who were executioners, so I felt like the author did a great job researching and portraying the culture of the executioners' society, but not much else.

It also had a little bit of a slow start but picked up the pace eventually. All in all, a fairly average murder mystery, which are a dime a dozen. Good for a "light read" if that's what you're looking for but don't expect it to live up to its hype. It's unlikely I'll be motivated to read the rest of the series.