The Dark Monk by Oliver Potzsch (2009).
Enormously entertaining book.
Why?
Because the main man is a giant
hangman (executioner) in 17th century Germany with the mind of
scholar!!
Because he and his two sidekicks
are having adventure which will make Indiana Jones pale with jealousy!
Because there are enough puzzles
and riddles to keep you at the edge of your seat.
And the best thing is all of
above is nicely wrap up with accurate and incredible details of 17th
century Germany. For example, do you
know that executions and the horrible tortures that accompany them are the best
entertainment you can possibly find in this part of world? Also, whoever run
the town make a festival out of it so that they can boost their revenue?
This is a high entertainment
with intelligence and part of history you never learn in school. Pure Gold.
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layers. –Jacob Kruisl.
A huge and powerful hangman with conscience which is as rare as it gets.
Once a brave
soldier during the Great War, he grew tired of all the non-sense of war and
come back home sober.
He
is brave, intelligent, thoughtful and contrary to the image he projects to the
outside world, quite merciful too.
His
study (man cave) is filled, from top to bottom, with all the rare and expensive
books one side and all sorts of herbs on the other side.
Hangmen
are the person responsible for the execution in front of huge crowd and get
paid by the head count of prisoners he kill or torture. And since every town
turns hanging and torturing prisoners into a festival for boosting town’s
spirit and revenue, and it’s hangmen’s job to supervise everything including
stage setting to actual killing, they can make quite good living.
Because
they have vast knowledge of medicines/herbs and also are the only ones with
first-hand know-how of human bodies (torture!), the demand for their services
as a doctor/pharmacist is really high. In fact, some of them are so popular and
rich, they can be able to buy the citizenship and get out of their occupation
(hangman), which is feared/respected but considered cursed.
He
is a family man with three children and fierce but caring wife.
Magdalena Kruisl. Jakob’s daughter. A smart
and curious girl who can’t get her noise out of troubles.
A beautiful
girl who can take care of herself more than one way or another. Currently she
is in training to be a midwife.
She
is deeply in love with Simon and struggles to cope with a fact that hangmen can
only marry one of their own.
Simon Fronwieser. A son of very
prominent town doctor who, against his father’s will, hangs around with a
hangman.
Ever since
he met Jacob, he was fascinated by all the knowledge/books own by Jacob and
realized the limit (and stupidity) of his study as a legitimate doctor and
willingly, enthusiastically and secretly became a student of a hangman.
He is quite
short even for this period (average height for 17th century is about
5’5”) at around 5’ but compensate it with smart and quick decision making.
He also is
in love with Magdalena and hopefully someday finds a way to get together with
her which is, off course, illegal now. Class difference and all that, you know.
Johann Lechner. A hangman’s boss. On
paper, he is just a court clerk who runs the book on city matter like
collecting taxes or paying for repairs, etc. However, in fact, he runs the
entire village like a town mayor with a service of Jacob, off course.
Those are
four major characters. Others are your typical greedy merchants, vicious
robbers, a few (another greedy) bishops and, of course, bunch of mysterious and
deadly DARK MONKS who are stalking in shadow looking for treasures.
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lace. – A small
village called Schongau, Dutchy of Bavaria, 1660 during snowy Winter time.
Since, Schougau is near Alps and it’s winter right now, the entire town and its
surrounding is literary waist-deep with snow.
From here, the riddles and adventures that follow them
takes our heroes everywhere around Dutchy of Bavaria from big, rich capital to
the war-torn villages. And yeah, DARK MONKS are everywhere!
Because this is set in 1660, author did tremendous
amount of research even before he came up with the plot, I think. However, what
differentiate this guy from others is that Oliver Potzsch is smart enough not
to make painful mistakes lots of period writers commit numerous times: put up
with annoying amount of informations.
Here, the author uses just enough details to describes
history/background/surrounding so that the actual story can move smoothly not interrupted
by descriptions after descriptions of historic trivia’s.
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lot. – A popular
town priest who just a week ago discovered religious artifact is poisoned to
death in his own church. Who kills him and why? Step by step, riddle by riddle,
Jakob, Magdalena and Simon unveil the sinister plot to take control of the World.
Kind of.
Like
all history mysteries, it takes couple of chapters to lay down all the settings
(background both historic and cultural), but once the story gets moving, it
never slows down. New cities, new mysteries new villains in every chapters.
Also,
love triangle, cryptic puzzles, swords fights, street fights, burning castle,
poisons, tortures, secret society. List goes on and on. And all those are jammed
nicely into the storyline creating a truly entertaining experience.
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erdict. –It’s
a rare history-mystery which balances the fiction and non-fiction perfectly.
There are just enough facts to keep you informed what was it like 1660 in
Bavaria culturally and historically, and lots of mysteries and following actions
to grab your attention tight till the very satisfying end.
You
will love this book for its intriguing puzzles, fascinating history, boiling
actions and most of all variety of unique characters. Hangman Jakob Kuisl is
just a fascinating guy: a Bavarian rough and wild Sherlock Holmes with blood
all over his hand, not that he likes it. It’s just a job for him.
I’ll
keep buy this series just to read about him. He is that good.
