Book Review: The Dark Monk by Oliver Potzsch...

Don't know if most of you know that I am a Bzz Agent. What exactly is that? Well, I signed up on this site to join in on campaigns for trying out stuff either for free or at a discount. So every so often, I get cool, free stuff. This book and the one prior to it were the latest items I got. Now, on with the review!

Title: The Dark Monk: A Hangman's Daughter Tale

Author: Oliver Potzsch

Series: Book Two of the Hangman's Daughter series

Publisher: Amazon Crossing

Pages: 516

ISBN: 0547807686 ASIN: B006JTTK3O

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes and Noble

Summary from Amazon.com:

THE ANTICIPATED FOLLOW-UP TO INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER THE HANGMAN’S DAUGHTER
1660: Winter has settled thick over a sleepy village in the Bavarian Alps, ensuring every farmer and servant is indoors on the night a parish priest discovers he's been poisoned. As numbness creeps up his body, he summons the last of his strength to scratch a cryptic sign in the frost.
Following a trail of riddles, hangman Jakob Kuisl; his headstrong daughter, Magdalena; and the town physician’s son team up with the priest’s aristocratic sister to investigate. What they uncover will lead them back to the Crusades, unlocking a troubled history of internal church politics and sending them on a chase for a treasure of the Knights Templar.
But they’re not the only ones after the legendary fortune. A team of dangerous and mysterious monks is always close behind, tracking their every move, speaking Latin in the shadows, giving off a strange, intoxicating scent. And to throw the hangman off their trail, they have ensured he is tasked with capturing a band of thieves roving the countryside attacking solitary travelers and spreading panic.

My thoughts:

While this is the second book in the series, this could be a stand alone novel. You don't feel like you have to go back and read the first book to understand what is going on. While there were some typos and grammatical errors in the book, they weren't enough to slow down the reading so much. The pace was decent. I could have enjoyed a little faster read, but overall, I liked the flow of the book. Apparently the author based his characters off of ancestors of his, which I find kind of cool.
The characters are well thought out and portrayed well. I think if I were to have an issue with this book it would be the riddles and the hunting down of legendary fortune of the Knights Templar. I felt like there were too many, but that could just be my imagination.
I also felt like it was running along the lines of Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons", but not quite.
I highly suggest the book and I will be reading The Hangman's Daughter soon. I will also be looking forward to the next installment of this series.

I give it 4 out of 5 Skull and Cross Bones.