Jakob Kuisl and his family are back again. His daughter Magdalena and her husband Simon are on a pilgrimage to a monastery to give thanks for the survival of their children. It’s a few years after the last book – Magdalena is a mom now, she’s got two boys who made it through the last plague that swept through the village. And monastery at Andechs is a pilgrimage spot because of a whole mess of religious relics which draw thousands of people from all over Bavaria. The gang heads there for the Festival of the Three Hosts.
After braving horrible storms, lightning, bandits and wolves, Magdalena and Simon get to the monastery. They don’t get to stay there with the other pilgrims, on account of being gross and beneath everyone. So they stay with Jakob’s cousin, the town’s knacker (the guy who skins all the dead animals). They also meet Brother Johannes, who isn’t what he seems to be. In fact, no one at Andechs is what they seem, which leads to all the usual mess that the Kuisls get into.
Some murders happen, and Magdalena writes to her dad to get him to come help. So the Scooby gang is back together, trying to figure out who committed the murders, where the monastery’s weird watchmaker guy went, and other mysteries. They’re also racing against the clock, to save Jakob’s old friend who is being held and tortured for the murders.
The story moves along quickly, with a bunch of twists and turns, plus Potzsch’s usual excellent research and sense of time and place. If you haven’t started this series, I highly recommend it.
Cannonball Read V 