Germany, 1660: 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 the
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.
A brilliantly detailed, fast-paced historical thriller, The Hangman's
Daughter is the first novel from German television screenwriter Oliver
Pötzsch, a descendent of the Kuisls, a famous Bavarian executioner clan.