Book Review: The Dark Monk by Oliver Pötzsch

Synopsis According to Goodreads:

THE ANTICIPATED FOLLOWUP TO THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER, THE HANGMAN’S DAUGHTER

1660: Winter has settled thick over a sleepy village in the Bavarian Alps, ensuring every farmer and servant is indoors the night a parish priest discovers he's been poisoned. As numbness creeps up his body, he summons the last of his strength to scratch a cryptic sign in the frost.

Following a trail of riddles, hangman Jakob Kuisl; his headstrong daughter Magdalena; and the town physician’s son team up with the priest’s aristocratic sister to investigate. What they uncover will lead them back to the Crusades, unlocking a troubled history of internal church politics and sending them on a chase for a treasure of the Knights Templar.

But they’re not the only ones after the legendary fortune. A team of dangerous and mysterious monks is always close behind, tracking their every move, speaking Latin in the shadows, giving off a strange, intoxicating scent. And to throw the hangman off their trail, they have ensured he is tasked with capturing a band of thieves roving the countryside attacking solitary travelers and spreading panic.

Delivering on the promise of the international bestseller The Hangman’s Daughter, once again based on prodigious historical research into Pötzsch’s family tree, The Dark Monk takes us on a whirlwind tour through the occult hiding places of Bavaria’s ancient monasteries, bringing to life an unforgettable compassionate hangman and his tenacious daughter, painting a robust tableau of a seventeenth-century Bavaria still negotiating the lasting impacts of war, and quickening our pulses with a gripping, mesmerizing mystery.

What I Thought:

Another amazing book in the Hangman's Daughter series. I'm really loving this author and his ability to tell a tale that incorporates historical realness with absolute creativity and imagination. This book was another stunning visual in the way he combined his words, and I like how he has the ability to connect his old story without it being related. I would not recommend skipping the first book in the series, but you could easily read this one without having read it and not be lost. The characters and storylines intertwine and the plot has fun up and downs without being entirely predictable.

One of my favorite parts about this book was the epilogue. The Author tells you how he came to write the book using so much history from his family tree and how he actually descends from the Hangman and how he goes back to Bavaria to research all of the locations. He then takes you on a walking/bike tour of the Priest's Corner, and tells you exactly what to look for if you vacation there. I hadn't really thought too much about visiting Bavaria before, but now I really want to go!

Also, I listened to the audio book and it's one of my favorite audio books of all time-the voice actor (Grover Gardner) has a way of making this story extra captivating and keeping you enthralled in the tale.