Gallows Thief
Gallows Thief book cover

Gallows Thief

by
Price
$20.00
Format
Hardcover
Pages
304
Publisher
Harper
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0060082734
Dimensions
6 x 1.09 x 9 inches
Weight
1.25 pounds

Description

From Publishers Weekly Fans of Cornwell's gallant up-from-the-ranks rifleman, Richard Sharpe, will welcome the upright Captain Rider Sandman, a veteran, like Sharpe, of Waterloo and the Peninsula campaign, in a mystery that highlights the horrors of capital punishment in Regency England. Compelled as a civilian to play cricket to earn a bare living in the wake of his disgraced father's financial ruin and suicide, Sandman can hardly refuse the Home Secretary's job offer of looking into the case of Charles Corday, a portrait painter convicted of murdering the Countess of Avebury. Since Corday's mother has the ear of Queen Charlotte, someone has to go through the motions of confirming Corday's guilt before he goes to the scaffold. Sandman, though, soon realizes that the man is innocent, and to prove it he has to locate a servant girl who was a likely witness to the countess's murder and has now disappeared. Sandman's investigation leads him to confront the corrupt and decadent members of London's Seraphim Club, but fortunately his reputation as a brave battlefield officer turns into allies any number of ex-soldier ruffians who might otherwise have given him trouble. The suspense mounts as Sandman must race the clock to prevent a miscarriage of justice at the nail-biting climax. An unresolved subplot involving our hero's ex-fiancEe, who still loves him despite his fall into poverty, suggests that Sandman will be back for further crime-solving adventures. Traditional historical mystery readers should cheer. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Disgraced by his father's suicide and impoverished by the debts that drove him to it, Capt. Rider Sandman, late of His Majesty's 52nd Regiment of Foot, has been forced to sell his commission to support his mother and sister. Desperate to earn a living but with no skills besides soldiering and cricket, he has come to London in search of a job. When the Home Secretary offers him temporary employment investigating a sensational murder, he accepts it as easy money. All he has to do is elicit a confession from the young artist accused of raping and murdering the Countess of Avebury during her portrait sitting. But when Sandman visits him in Newgate, the artist defends his innocence so vehemently that Sandman begins to have his doubts. Unwillingly, he is drawn into an investigation that not only risks his life but introduces him to the darkest secrets of several aristocratic families. As with his popular Richard Sharpe novels (Sharpe's Trafalgar) and his Arthurian trilogy, "The Warlord Chronicles," Cornwell is superb at weaving the ambience and issues of the day (this time Regency England) with a gripping plot and a memorable character. Readers will hope to see more. Cynthia Johnson, Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, MACopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Booklist Cornwell, author of the best-selling Richard Sharpe saga, turns his attention from the battlefield in this meticulously crafted historical mystery. After successfully defending his country at Waterloo, Captain Rider Sandman returns to England to face bankruptcy and disgrace. Unable to pay off his enormous gambling debts, Rider's father has committed suicide, leaving his son to uphold the family honor. Penniless and without prospects, Rider sells his commission to house his mother and younger sister. Looking for any type of honest work that will enable him to live and to pay off some of his father's creditors, he accepts an assignment to investigate the circumstances of the brutal rape and murder of the countess of Avebury. Though a hapless young portrait painter has already been convicted of the crime, Sandman begins to suspect well-connected members of the aristocracy have framed him. Racing against time to save a man from the gallows, his inquiries lead him into the seamy underbelly of upper-class Regency society. Cornwell's flair for authentic detailing distinguishes this suspenseful, action-packed period whodunit. Margaret Flanagan Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved BERNARD CORNWELL is the author of over fifty novels, including the acclaimed New York Times bestselling Saxon Tales , which serve as the basis for the hit Netflix series The Last Kingdom . He lives with his wife on Cape Cod and in Charleston, South Carolina. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • A spellbinding historical drama about an ex-soldier in 1820s London who must help rescue an innocent man from Death Row, by bestselling author Bernard Cornwell
  • It is the end of the Napoleonic Wars and England has just fought its last victorious battle against the French. As Rider Sandman and the other heroes of Waterloo begin to make their way back to England, they find a country where corruption, poverty, and social unrest run rampant, and where "justice" is most often delivered at the end of a hangman's noose. Nowhere in London are the streets as busy as in front of Newgate Prison, its largest penitentiary, where mobs gather regularly to watch the terrible spectacle of the doomed men and women on the gallows' stands.
  • Rider Sandman -- whose reputation on the battlefields of France is exceeded only by his renown on the cricket fields of England -- returns home from war to discover his personal affairs in a shambles. Creditors have taken over his estate, leaving him penniless -- and forcing him to release the woman he loves from her obligations to marry him. Desperate to right his situation, he accepts the offer of a job investigating the claims of innocence by a painter due to hang for murder in a few days' time. The Home Secretary makes it clear that this is pro-forma, and that he expects Sandman to rubber-stamp the verdict.But Sandman's investigation reveals that something is amiss -- that there is merit to the young artist's claims. He further discovers that, though the Queen herself has ordered a reinvestigation of the circumstances, someone else does not want the truth revealed.
  • In a race against the clock, Sandman moves from the hellish bowels of Newgate prison to the perfumed drawing rooms of the aristocracy, determined to rescue the innocent man from the rope. As he begins to peel back the layers of an utterly corrupt penal system, he finds himself pitted against some of the wealthiest and most ruthless men in Regency England.
  • Gallows Thief
  • combines the rich historical texture of Edward Rutherford and the taut suspense of Caleb Carr to create an eviscerating portrait of capital punishment in nineteeth-century London.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(251)
★★★★
25%
(209)
★★★
15%
(126)
★★
7%
(59)
★
23%
(192)

Most Helpful Reviews

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A swinging yarn

Bernard Cornwell has ranged over a vast time and space in his tales. In some he succeeds, as the regiments of fans of his Sharpe series will attest. In others he has swung and missed.
So I approached this latest book with an open mind, not knowing whether I would race through it or put it down unfinished.
I am happy to say that Cornwell has made a solid hit with this story. It is steadily paced action, building tension every step of the way until the very end, and it is very hard to put down without wanting to get back to see what happens next.
The setting is London, post Waterloo, and at times the reader almost gags from the stink of open sewers and corruption high and low. It opens with a gruesome execution at Newgate Prison and ends with another, the tension reaching an unbearable point as the last chapter echoes the first and we feel the dread of the condemned at each step along the final walk from cell to scaffold.
In between, we follow a new character, Captain Sandman, as he gains allies and enemies investigating a murder mystery. I hope we see more of him, and I rather think we will, as Cornwell leaves some plot strands dangling to be picked up again in the next novel.
Underlying the action and tension there is a wealth of historical information and an examination of the system of crime and punishment in Georgian England. Never rammed down our throats, nor sugar-coated, but it is there, and we may think some deep thoughts along the way.
All in all, this latest book is tightly written, filled with action, romance and tension. Strongly evocative of the place and time, and another big tick for Bernard Cornwell.
38 people found this helpful
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Cornwell doesn't leave us hanging!

... In Bernard Cornwell's "Gallows Thief" the author changes gears abit (as well as genres) and give us a historical mystery procedural that is worthy of its classification. ... Set in Regency England, the book introduces us to Sandman, a hero of the Battle of Waterloo, who returns home to find his father's lost the family fortune (and committed suicide) and accompanying social standing. Rider is unemployed and, having previously sold his commission,is without a penny. His fiancee has canceled their wedding plans and he finds himself housed in a Drury Lane hotel of dire repute, or "flash house."
But all is not lost. His skills as a cricket player, plus his ties with friends in high places, count for something, so it's not as if he has to sell himself on the streets. Well, almost, anyway. He is recommended to the Home Secretary to look into a petition from the mother of a young man who's been found guilty of murder and is only days from being hanged. His job is to ascertain that justice has been served and then the sentence can be carried out. Sandman takes the employment and, being the honest and justice-minded soul he is, soon begins having doubts as to the young man's guilt. Slowly, he enlists an intrepid band of partners and they progress through the case: Berrigan, a former sergeant also of the Waterloo campaign; his friend Lord Alexander; Miss Sally Hood, an actress and model; and Eleanor, the aforementioned former fiancee. However, as they have only seven days to find "cause" to overturn the conviction, they have to work with full speed ahead.
Along the way, Cornwell's consummate research/background material support the general plot outline in typical Coarnwellian fashion. The author does not hesitate to dwell upon the abject social situations abounding in early 19th century England, from the court and prison systems to the religious areas. The social significance that he addresses does not go amiss, especially the zeal for the courts to hang as many as they can, ostensibly to deter crime. Sandman and other free thinkers have difficulty accepting this concept. "They don't hang as many in Scotland as we do in England and Wales. Yet, I believe the murder rate is no higher.Strange, wouldn't you say?" asks one of the characters.
But the strength of "Gallows Thief" is in the presentation of Rider Sandman, a good, healthy, lively man who is not content to tolerate these unacceptable conditions of the human spirit, naive man that he sometimes is. He has a good heart (even though he thinks it's broken!).
The book progresses well, for the most part, and it certainly leads one to believe that, surely, this is the first of a long series. History it is, but with a twist; it's England, warts and all. A good read. ...
24 people found this helpful
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Race against time

Bernard Cornwell, famous for his Sharpe series, has now ventured into the historical whodunnit genre. While it was a good book overall, this reviewer felt that it was quite lightweight.
The protagonist, Rider Sandman, has been tasked by the Home Secretary to determine the guilt or innocence of Charles Corday, due to be hanged in a week. The more Sandman investigates, the more convinced he is of Corday's innocence. But to steal Corday away from the gallows (hence the title) Sandman has to present hard evidence to the Home Secretary.
There is nothing special about the characters in the book. Sandman is well rounded enough. He is more Poirot than Sam Spade; honest, intelligent and principled. Endearing to him will not be difficult.
However, the rest of the cast seem like stock characters from any novel set in the 19th century. The rogue, the wench, a couple of rich aristocrats with manners of a pig...they're all there. There's even a surprise witness who naturally doesnt turn up till the end of the book to wrap things up nice and neat.
All in all, veterans of crime fiction may not be impressed with this simple effort. Fans of Cornwell might want to try it for no other reason other than because it was written by their favourite author. But if you want to wait for the cheaper paperback version, I wont blame you.
A 3 star book.
17 people found this helpful
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a terrifically good and exciting read

I really do hope that "Gallows Thief" is the first book in a projected series. It was such a swashbucklingly good read, full of ambiance that's really evocative of the age, and a parade of lovingly detailed characters (both the good and the creepy) that stayed with me long after I finished the book. Definitely, "Gallows Thief" is a must read for all historical mystery fans.
Charles Corday, a young portrait painter has been found guilty of the rape and murder of Lady Avebury, whose portrait he was in the process of painting, and he is to hang in a weeks' time. However, Corday also happens to be the son of the Queen's seamstress. And the seamstress has petitioned the Queen for the case to be reinvestigated, and Lord Sidmouth, the Secretary of State in the Home Department is not happy at all. HE is sure of Corday's guilt and that the case was properly investigated, and is rather affronted that political pressure has been applied for Corday's guilt (or lack of) to be confirmed. He needs someone to do a pro-forma investigation -- to go through the motions, not create and waves and not to uncover any new evidence, but to merely reconfirm Corday's guilt. And the man that Sidmouth has been recommended for such a job happens to be Rider Sandman, a veteran of the Peninsula campaign, who happens to be currently without a job or funds. The job is a temporary one, but the reward for a job well done is substantial. And so Sandman accepts the commission and sets of for the Old Bailey in order to interview Corday and wring a confession out of him. What he finds however is a pathetic creature who (in Sandman's mind at least) seems an unlikely rapist-murderer. Corday further flabbergasts Sandman by claiming that he was never alone with the Countess and that her maid was always with them as a chaperone. Said maid has since disappeared, thus was unable to provide Corday with an alibi. Confused, Sandman is unsure what his next course of action should be -- should he ignore what Corday's claims or should he look for the mysteriously missing maid? With the help of some rather unlikely characters (his good friend, the Reverend Lord Alexander Pleydell, and actress Sally Hood) Sandman begins his unsolicited quest for the truth.
"Gallows Thief" was a truly fun and absorbing read. Bernard Cornwell really made England of the early 19th century come alive -- the sights and sounds and smells and the feel ... it was all there. If you're looking for a good historical novel that gives consideration to the social and political realities of the time, you'll be more than satisfied with this book. The plot unfolded in a brisk and smooth manner, and I was so caught up with what was going on, that I fairly devoured the book in one go! And the hero of this book (hopefully series) is bound to engage as well -- kind, honest, noble yet proud -- very much the white knight of detecting! All in all, "Gallows Thief" is a terrifically good and exciting read, and one that (esp if you are a Regency mystery addict) should not be missed.
14 people found this helpful
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A case against capital punishment

The setting of the novel is London and nearby areas in 1817. After over 20 years of war, peace has brought a reduced Army and Navy. Tens of thousands of soldiers and sailors have been dumped out onto the streets with no jobs and few skills. The country is overrun with beggers and tramps. Protection of domestic agriculture (restrictions on grain imports) have driven up prices. Lower class poor are starving. There have been riots. The government has become repressive to hold the mobs in check (poor people had no vote). Over 200 crimes carry the death penalty ranging from theft to murder. A speedy trial was the rule of the day. In assembly line fashion, the total process of accusation, arrest, trial, conviction, appeal, and execution was accomplished in a few weeks.
The prologue of the novel describes a hanging fair, including the stench inside the prison, the preparation of the condemned for hanging, the walk to the gallows, the actual public execution before the mob of spectators (one man's hanging is another man's entertainment), and the diposal of the bodies - some to surgeons for dissection. The detailed description is not for the squeamish. A young woman, falsely accused, is hanged for theft. She must be guilty because she was convicted. Hang 'em all. Let God sort them out.
Captain Rider Sandman is unemployed and living in penury in the garret of a disreputable tavern (he has sold his commission and his father's bankruptcy and suicide left his family without funds). He is employed by the Home Secretary to investigate a case involving the murder of a Countess. The Queen has taken an interest. Matters are complicated because the government does not want a conviction overturned. A man has been convicted so he must be guilty. The execution is scheduled in a week, so he doesn't have much time.
Captain Sandman discovers that the dead woman's servants are missing. His investigation antagonizes a group of powerful young lords, but he acquires an assortment of allies. The story winds forward as he rushes to complete the investigation before the man is hanged. Time is running out. The story has a somewhat surprising conclusion as evidence reveals the true nature of events.
The novel provides some insights into English society of that time period including the "justice" system. The lower classes had no votes and few rights, being held in economic servitude. The story seems to drag a bit in places as you wait for people to get on with things. The novel contains some amount of sex, nudity, and violence. Based on contents, I would give it a PG-13 rating.
9 people found this helpful
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fades in the stretch...

I'd rate the first half or so 4 stars, the second half 2 stars.
The first half does a good job of portraying the very thin
veneer between the upper classes and the lower classes--the
upper crust being, by and large, as corrupt as those who are
in the condemned cells in Newgate Prison--but the upper class
people very rarely are punished for the crimes that the lower
classes are hanged or transported for. The hero, Rider Sandman,
mixes between the two classes well.
The second half of the book starts to wander: there is less
of historical/sociological interest as Sandman gathers his team
to uncover the real murderer. The climax--let me put that in
quotes "climax" --is a last-minute, last-second race to get a
reprieve for the wrongly accused man and rescue him from the
gallows. This last-minute race to save an innocent person from
execution has been overworked to death in novels--it always seems
that the reprieve is at the last second, rather than a day or a
week before the execution--this has come to resemble the almost
inevitable car chase in action movies--original variations of
car chases are few and far between. So the interest generated by
the first half of the book is not sustained in the second half.
8 people found this helpful
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riches-to-rags

This is much more than a historical whodonit. Sandman, the hero, has just suffered a reverse of fortune when the story begins: his father has committed suicide because he was bankrupted, and has left his family without a penny. All the plans that Sandman had for the future have been destroyed, including his intention to marry a beautiful, intelligent and rich heiress. He finds himself living in the worst part of London, sharing the squalor and appalling conditions of life with the "dregs" of society. The author makes a wonderful work of describing these (without being too sordid), from the point of view of one who, until recently, belonged to the privileged class. In fact the main character learns a lot about this formerly hidden aspect of his society. And it is one of the triumphs of the novel that he will only redeem himself, and find a new place in society, when (with the help of these same "dregs", including a highwayman, a girl who is on the path to whoredom and an ex-soldier thug) he undoes a terrible unjustice (the whodonit aspect of the novel)while always trying to keep his moral standards which, as he learns, are not necessarily kept by the higher society people for whose only benefit, it seems, the "justice" of his country is made. It is this rigid moral code of the hero, which he follows even when he deals with "scum", what endears him to us, what helps him find good qualities in "low" people and bad qualities in "high" people, and what finally makes him get out of the cul-de-sac where he finds himself at the beginning of the story. I loved it!
3 people found this helpful
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A good book for the beach... and not much else.

This novel is long on period detail, full of amusing slang from the London underworld of the 1800's, replete with stock characters and is the kind of story you forget almost as soon as you've read it. Having authored the incredibly engrossing and believable Richard Sharpe novels, and some other series not as good, why Bernard Cornwell ventured into the field of "period" mystery is the real mystery.
He is a much better writer than this novel would have a first time reader of his work think. Altogether the kind of book that you'd take to the beach. If you lose it in the sand and don't get to finish it, no big deal. One thing: If you're interested in cricket, the game not the insect, you're going to learn more about it than you ever wanted to know. (For a better explanation of this unique game, I'd recommend "How I Won the War" by Patrick Ryan, which has the added advantage of being humorous.)
3 people found this helpful
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If you loved the Richard Sharpe novels you will love this!

The Gallows Thief is enriched by excellent period research but not overwhelmed by it. Bernard Cornwell is a brilliant writer who knows how to weave research throughout his narrative to give a Regency feel but still make it comprehensible to modern readers who may not have a Regency sensibility. The characters are well-rounded, interesting, and grab the reader's imagination. Captain Rider Sandman is the consummate Regency hero, intelligent, physically brave, craggily handsome, sympathetic to the plight of others. Here he is forced to work for his living -- demoting him from the ranks of gentlemen -- to support himself, his widowed mother, and sister. His father, a suicide, gambled and speculated away the sizable family fortune and lands and it is now up to his son to try to make things right, beginning with paying off tradesmen devastated by their losses. A gallows thief saves those sentenced to death by hanging. The fascinating twist to this mystery is that the sentenced rapist/murder, Charles Corday/aka/Cruttwell, is not a likable character. Despite his own feelings toward Corday, Sandman is soon convinced of his innocence and sets out to prove it. The action is non-stop and the book impossible to put down. I could not recommend this more highly as both a fan of Regency-set novels and an author myself of Regency fiction. Please, HarperCollins, offer Cornwell a contract for more Sandman novels! We want to know what happens to him and to all the equally marvelous secondary characters Cornwell has introduced. Jack Hood, the dishy highwayman, certainly deserves a plot of his own! And, whatever your opinion concerning capital punishment, the cruel practice of hanging will give you food for thought. Hanged for stealing a watch? For your mistress's pearls, even though you didn't do it? The descriptions of hanging are not for those who don't have strong stomachs, but this did happen, and often (between 1816 and 1820, there were over 100 hangings a year, most for robbery). This novel is set in 1817.
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Shows up the brutality of captial punishment

John Keane in his book "Tom Paine" wrote that: "Among he supreme ironies of the (late 18th and early 19th centuries)... was that England, renowed as the home of liberty and good government, was imposing Europe's most barbarous criminal code on a population that was among the least violent in the region."
Bernard Cornwell, as he has done in his Richard Sharp series, bases this book loosely on a historical event, here it is the widespread imposition of the death penalty in England in the past. By 1820, the author points out that there were more than two hundred capital crimes in England, most of which were crimes against property, including such minor offenses as the theft of an orange or a loaf of bread. This great expansion of capital crimes is something that is not taught in school as part of the history of the industrial revolution in England. These executions were carried out to protect the property of the new class of industrial capitalist. Hanging a thief meant that he or she could not steal again.
Cornwell does a good job in describing the circus-like atmosphere surrounding these hangings. Crowds flocked to watch.
Vendors sold food and souveniers. The hangman sold pieces of the rope he used. Cornwell also depicts the brutality of hanging.
It was a slow agonizing death in many cases. Today, botched executions by lethal injection has resulted in similar deaths.
I hope the author uses his protagonist in this book. An
individual who literally cheated the gallows by investigating a murder case to find evidence to prevent the hanging of an innocent person charged with murder. Cornwell deftly intertwines a murder mystery with a twist to keep the reader in suspense as to who the murderer is.
Using fiction to depict the brutality of capital punishment as a backdrop for a good mystery story is one good way to show up the uncivilized hangover of murder by government.
2 people found this helpful

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