THE BEGGAR KING A Hangman's Daughter Tale

Summoned to Regensburg to the bedside of his dying sister, Jakob Kuisl, hangman of Schongau, arrives to find her and her husband murdered. Kuisl is accused and imprisoned for the deed. Back in Schongau, his daughter, Magdalena, has troubles of her own, causing her and her lover, Simon, to travel to Regensburg. Grover Gardner's performance makes even the most melodramatic turns of events seem credible. His mastery of the narrator's art does much to suspend disbelief even as scenes of certain death turn into close calls and last minute sanctuaries miraculously appear. Oliver Pötzsch offers a mind-boggling series of plot twists and well-researched seventeenth-century detail--from medical missteps to powerful cabals, from merciless mercenaries to diabolical smugglers. Gardner makes it all bloody good listening. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2013]