This book is the first in a series of seven, and I'll probably do a full series review once I've read all of them. In the meantime, I had to share my thoughts on the first installment because I just loved it so much. It's dark, gruesome, and engaging, and coolest of all, it's based on Oliver Pötzsch's own family history.
“Life went on, despite all the dying.”
Being the town executioner is a brutal way to make a living, but Jakob Kuisl doesn't mind. He carries on the tradition of his ancestors before him, and it keeps his family fed. The residents of the Bavarian village of Schongau despise the hangman, but secretly inquire for his herbal potions and remedies, which work better than anything the village physician has prescribed.
Speaking of the village physician, his son Simon is falling head over heels for Jakob's oldest daughter, Magalena. Unfortunately, executioners may only marry within their profession, so Magdalena is promised to the son of a hangman in a nearby village. Despite this, the two begin spending more time with one another, realizing they don't care what their parents or people in the village will think.
Rumors begin to fly about Simon and Magdalena, but that's just the beginning.
“Because a rumor is like smoke. It will spread, it will seep through closed doors and latched shutters, and in the end the whole town will smell of it.”
Among the citizens of Schongau are five orphans, who are constantly bullied and ostracized by the rest of the local children. Their only friend, aside from each other, is the local midwife, Martha Stechlin.
The kids spend most of their time at Martha's house, where she teaches them about the herbs and remedies she uses for her trade. The rest of their time is spent at their hideout, somewhere they're sure no one else will ever find.
When the body of one of the orphan boys is found in the river, with a strange mark tattooed onto his shoulder with elderberry juice, witchcraft is immediately suspected. Martha is arrested for the murder, and Jakob is tasked with torturing her until she confesses, not only to the murder of a child but to being a witch.
Problem is, Jakob knows Martha is innocent. He tries to prolong the proceedings as long as possible, hoping to find the real culprit in the meantime, but when two more children are found dead, yet another has been kidnapped from her home, and the local warehouse has been burned to the ground, it's already too late. The village is in an uproar, and they want to see a witch burned at the stake. Some even report seeing the devil himself in the village: a tall, dark, menacing figure with a skeletal hand. They're convinced that he's been summoned there by all the witchcraft.
Jakob knows that killing Martha won't fix the problem, and that soon the entire village will be turning against one another, accusing their friends and neighbors of being witches. Martha wouldn't be the first innocent person to die, and she certainly wouldn't be the last.
"We have to save not just the children, but Martha as well. And it is a fact that there was a witches’ mark on each of the dead children. And that all of them had previously been at the midwife’s. It’s possible that the Elector’s secretary will arrive as early as tomorrow, and Lechner wants to have the confession by then. I can actually understand why: if the secretary begins meddling in the matter, then one witch just won’t do. That’s exactly how it was with the last great witch hunt here in Schongau. In the end they burned more than sixty women in these parts.”
Meanwhile, construction on the grounds of the local church has been vandalized. Walls have been knocked over, supplies ransacked, and even the foundation has been damaged, like someone was breaking it apart with a pickaxe. It almost seems like the vandals were looking for something, but what could possibly be hidden there?
Jakob, and now Simon and Magdalena believe the events in the village and at the construction site are connected, but none of the town officials are willing to listen. What could the motive be? What could they have been looking for in the church? Why go after the children?
The only people who may have the answers are the two remaining orphans, but they're nowhere to be found.
“If you want to know who is responsible for anything, ask who benefits from it.”
As Jakob, Simon, and Magdalena fight against the clock to find the children, prove Martha's innocence, and discover the mysteries hidden within the church grounds, they find themselves fighting against greed, corruption, and possibly even the devil himself.
With Walpurgis Night quickly approaching and the village being thrown further into a frenzy, can they solve the mystery and restore order in time?
I'll give you a fair warning: this is a gruesome, bloody story. If that type of thing bothers you, this may not be the book for you.
However, if you can look past that, this is an absolutely fascinating read that I had a hard time putting down. It was even cooler when I got to the author's note at the end and discovered that the story was based on the author's true family history—the Kuisls were real, and he's related to them!
"We are trying, in a world of increasing complexity, to create a simpler and more understandable place for ourselves. No longer do we grow up in large families. We feel increasingly estranged, replaceable, and ephemeral. Genealogy gives us a feeling of immortality. The individual dies; the family lives on.”
Like I mentioned, I'll probably do a more in-depth review once I've completed the whole series, but in the meantime, please let me know if you decide to give this a read!
Be sure to join me on Discord so we can discuss it, and please tell me about your favorite books as well. My goal is to create a community of readers, and together we can teach others how incredible reading can be. I'd love to have you join me!
'•.¸♡ Off to dive into book #2! ♡¸.•'