NEW YORK — The author of the million-selling "The Hangman's Daughter" books has signed for a new novel.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced Thursday that Oliver Potzsch's "The Castle of Kings" is scheduled for the fall of 2014. The publisher says "The Castle of Kings" is a romance set in the 16th century and will feature a story of "forbidden love" between an aristocrat's daughter and a blacksmith's son.

Other books by the German author include the "Hangman" novels "The Beggar King" and "The Poisoned Pilgrim" and the upcoming "The Ludwig Conspiracy," a novel inspired by the 19th-century Bavarian monarch Ludwig II and due to be released this fall.