Friday, January 4, 2013

Cleaning house - The Dark Monk

The Dark Monk is the second in the "Hangman's Daughter" series by Oliver Potzsch. No witchily murdered children this time, but someone still gets poisoned within the first couple of pages, so it wasn't exactly Christmas reading, but that's when I read it!

It wasn't exactly a Yuletide miracle, but it was okay. I read the first one (The Hangman's Daughter) because it was at Mom's, and it was fine, but I didn't love it. I feel like I actually thought to myself that I wouldn't rush out and read another one, but then I saw this one when I was meandering down the new-books self at the BPL, and grabbed it. I figured it wouldn't suck, and it was a paperback, so it wouldn't be too heavy... Not exactly a glowing recommendation, but it really DIDN'T suck.

The hangman himself is a strong character. His daughter, on the other hand, is probably meant to be smart and strong and feisty, but she actually feels kind of familiar. I mean, these days, is a smart, strong heroine, even in the seventeenth century, supposed to be a new thing, or a big strength of a book? I could even live with her though - which is good, since she's pretty prominent, and on her own a lot, in this installment - but it's the third main character, Simon the doctor, that bugs me. I don't know why, except maybe that he's a bit of a self-involved idiot, but he just rubs me the wrong way.

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