This is the fourth installment of the series.
I have reviewed the previous ones here:The Hangman’s Daughter #1, #2, #3
I am not exactly sure why I continue to pursue this series, it is extremely different from the other books that I have been trying out this past year. I am waiting to see how much change can come into the storyline, and what new, strange events can take place in that alien world of Bavaria in the 1600s. None of the main characters are perfect, they may not even have proper hygiene as we know it now, but they do have brains.
The world that they live in, just needs a man to admit to something to convict him into the gallows even if no one actually believes they are responsible. That is the case yet again( as it was in one of the previous situations). Magdalena and Simon are on a pilgrimage ( it has been four years since we met them last) and as usual get embroiled in something sinister. They think beyond their ‘status’ and are extremely curious. It is that unfailing quality that binds them as a family( Even Magdalena’s father the Hangman). Simon has enough confidence to claim that the body fished out of the river, may not be the result of an accident. Then another violent incident occurs, and to save their own skins and for truth to prevail, Jakob is brought into the scene. There is also the mysterious plague, the symptoms of which seem to ring faintly in Simon’s mind but he has his hands full.
This installment had more family moments, and now used to their oddities and the ways they interact with each other, I enjoyed this book better than the last two.This series though is not for the faint hearted but definitely for the historically curious.
P.S for a new reader: If you have stumbled on this post, please do wander about the site.There might be more posts that could make sense to you.
Superfluous Reading 