Sequel Review: Even Better on the Second Try

The Dark Monk by Oliver Pötzsch (Author) and Lee Chadeayne (translator): Angels & Demons Gone Renaissance

Flashplot: In this historical fiction suspense novel, a sequel to The Hangman’s Daughter, our three main characters, the town executioner Jakob Kuisl, his daughter Magdalena, and the young physician Simon Fronwiesser, return to solve yet another mystery in the small 17^th century German town of Schongau. Starting with the suspicious death of a local priest and leading to a full-blown conspiracy involving religious riddles, relics, and a search for the Templar’s treasure, this plot truly could be summed up as the Angels & Demons of the 1600s.

As a reader: As much as I enjoyed the characters of the first book in this series, the sequel was even better. In The Dark Monk Pötzsch rectified the plot pacing problems he had in book one. The story here unfolds fast enough to hook the reader, but without the lagging middle chapters, and ends with an action-packed climax. The mystery itself was also more artfully revealed, with enough clues to get the reader guessing, but enough unknown to create the suspense that made this a page-turner. And though it did seem to borrow a bit from the ideas of Brown’s modern-day best-seller, what makes this perhaps a more interesting tale is its historical setting. Pötzsch weaves in his research of his family, the Kuisls, the time period, the section of Germany known as Priests’ Corner, and the history of the religious disputes that brought devastating war to the area.

As a writer: The Dark Monk confirmed what I found to be true in my own writing: the only way to learn how to write a novel is to write a novel. Pötzsch’s first book was entertaining, but had some obvious flaws (as most debut novels do). His second tale took all the best parts from the first, the enhancing historical details, the dark commentary on the town and the times, and the captivating main characters, while improving his story-telling and pacing.

Bottom line: The Dark Monk is a great historical suspense novel worth pulling out the flashlight for. Though readers who like knowing as much as possible about a character might want to start with the first book, The Hangman’s Daughter, Pötzsch alludes enough to the important parts of book one that most readers would be fine reading this as a stand-alone piece. Not me, I already pre-ordered book three!