This is the second book I've finished on an e-reader and with Amazon Prime, I borrowed it for free. That's a good deal! Overall, I liked it...but there were some parts that moved a little slowly. I was attempting to quickly finish the book, so I found myself skim reading through the middle third quite a bit. I don't really feel like I missed any pertinent details by doing this either.
It's a bit of a whodunit, but I had it figured out by about page 100 of 400+. That didn't take away from a couple of surprises throughout though.
What attracted me to the book to begin with is that it is written by an actual descendant of a hangman. Oliver Potzsch can trace his lineage back to the Kuisl dynasty of hangmen. Regrettably, someone had to do it...and the task fell to his family to complete.
But don't let the title deceive you, there's plenty of good old fashioned torture too...though thankfully, not described in detail. Oddly enough, the hangmen traditionally had reputations as healers too. They worked alongside midwives to provide remedies and healing herbs, in a time when bleeding someone and reusing filthy rags to staunch wounds was commonplace.
Pick up a copy, or if you have Amazon Prime, borrow it for a month. If, like me, you like historical fiction, I think you'll enjoy it too.
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