The Hangman's Daughter

Oliver Pötzsch is a script writer for Bavarian TV and has now also written 5 books in this series which begins with The Hangman's Daughter. The protagonist is the hangman himself, Jakob Kuisl, who in 17th century Bavaria, also served as chief torturer and, unofficially, as a local healer in the town of Schongau. At that time, doctors believed the body was ruled by "humors" and so relied on bleeding, cupping, smelling the patient's urine and other similarly useless tasks; whereas midwives and other local healers relied on herb lore. We are left in no doubt as to which approach was more effective. However, people were alternately very superstitious about those who used such remedies and when problems arose, those same native healers were often labeled as witches or devils and persecuted to the grave. Hangmen, too, were shunned by the townsfolk as a necessary evil and so they and their families lived in the less desirable parts of town and could not interact with the wealthy burgers.
The story opens when Jakob is a boy, trying to wake his father from a drunken stupor in order that he can go hang someone. This is not a profession that brings great happiness, apparently, and this was common behavior for Jakob's father.
Thirty five years later, Jakob is now the town's executioner and has a family of his own--his wife, a nearly grown daughter, Magdalena, and two younger twins. Magdalena has her eyes on Simon Fronwieser, son of the town's physician; Simon is disgusted by how his father practices medicine and seeks to learn all he can about healing. Surprisingly, Jakob has a relatively extensive library of more progressive medical texts and so Simon is a frequent visitor at the house, and is equally besotted with Magdalena. This horrifies Simon's father who believes, like the other wealthy men in town, that one should not fraternize with the hangman's family.
Now a young orphan turns up in the river, fatally beaten and wounded with a crudely made symbol on his shoulder that the townspeople immediately conclude is evidence of witchcraft. They target the local midwife, Martha Stechlin, and it is up to Jakob, Simon and Magdalena to find the real killers before Jakob is forced to execute Martha as a witch. It is a sufficiently intricate plot to keep one guessing as to who is behind this and the additional murders of children that occur in the next few days. Time is running out for Martha, when Magdalena is kidnapped by a man with a hand of bone; those who've seen him believe is a devil summoned by the witch. Lots of good historical detail and description. The author is directly descended from the Kuisl dynasty of executioners and so had a great starting place to learn about what their lives were like. This will be a good recommendation for those who love historical fiction, a good mystery or a bit of the paranormal. Very readably translated from the German by Lee Chadeayne