The Dark Monk: A Hangman's Daughter Tale, Oliver Potzsch

This was the long awaited sequel to The Hangman's Daughter (which I STILL think was poorly named..the sequel is no different...) and it really wasn't long awaited because I really had no idea it had come out! BUT I   was pretty excited to download it to my kindle and start reading it right away!! We start off about a year (give or take) after the first book ended. Magdelena and Simon are still a couple, as starcrossed couple, but a couple nonetheless, and the Hangman (Jakob) is still hangin' people. There is a mysterious murder of a monk and Simon calls in Jakob to take a look at the and both decide that this gluttonous monk did not just overindulge for the last time, but was in fact poisoned. Some seedy characters dressed as monks that have been hanging around the town are very suspicious, and some robbers have been terrorizing the trading roads. So there is a LOT going on in this story, but it is not all always in the front line. In someway, somehow most everything is connected in one way or the other. The mystery itself is intriguing. Very Illuminati/Knights of Templar stuff going on. At times I feel like some of the story lines (especially with some of the townspeople or even with Kuisl) seem a little more strained than it did in the first book, but it was still an overall good read! I would recommend it for sure if you liked the first one! Having read the first book, however, is not necessary in understanding all the goes on in this sequel. Some of the relationships obviously go back to the first book, but there is always a little summary between them to remind/catch the reader up!