The Beggar King: a Hangman's Daughter Tale / Oliver Potzsch 466 p.

Jakob Kuisl is the hangman in the small German town of Schongau, in the period following the Thirty Years War.  When he learns that his sister is ill, he travels to the free city of Regensburg to be with her, and winds up accused of a double murder and subject to torture by that town's own hangman.  He is joined in Regensburg by his daughter Magdalena and her lover Simon Fronwieser, Schongau's medicus.

This is the third in the Hangman's Daughter books and I gather from patron comments and reviews that it is a welcome addition to a series that is growing in popularity.  There is plenty of action, a well-constructed plot, likeable characters and rich historical detail; on the whole I found this a great genre piece.  Because hangmen were apparently also responsible for garbage collection in 17th-century Germany, there is an unbelievable emphasis on details of filth, odor, excrement, etc., reinforcing a rather unfortunate stereotype about Germans and their obsessions. (Potzsch writes in German; the books are translated by Lee Chadeayne.)  But don't let that stop you; I found Potzsch's presentation of a likable, almost noble hangman quite thought provoking and occasionally very funny.