Rating: 
Summary: Cornwell doesn't leave us hanging!
Review: ... 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. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Capital Punishment in the 19th Century
Review: Bernard Cornwell's novels are always so much fun to read! Every book he writes makes the reader a time traveller in which the setting, characterization, dialogue, social mores and culture are flawlessly presented within an absorbing plot. In THE GALLOWS THIEF, the reader witnesses the brutality, degradation, and fallibility of Britain's capital punishment statutes in the 19th century. Punishment is swift but there is also the possibility of the inevitable, that an innocent man will be hanged. The questions and problems that Cornwell presents in this entertaining, yet thought-provoking story are similar to modern day arguments against capital punishment. However Cornwell has created a drama with interesting characters and realistic dialogue that educates while it entertains.
Rating:
Summary: Can we have more?
Review: Better known for his Richard Sharpe series, Cornwell, nevertheless, scores big with Gallow's Thief. Historical fiction, it is set in London, two years after Waterloo. It has all the usual ingredients of a sucessful historical (or detective, or mystery) novel - action, intrique, murder, sex, mystery. While the book does tend to formula in it's detective work (The backhanded compliment to Sherlock Holmes is appreciated.), all that is overcome by a wonderful cast of characters. Captain Rider Sandman is honorable, brave, consentious and, of course, poor as a church mouse. In order to keep body and soul together, he accepts the job of Inspector. In this case, he is given the uneviable task of determining the guilt or innocence of an already condemned man. Sandman's allies are a disparate group. Sally Hood, actress and sometime model for various painters, is Sandman's tutor in the slang and life of London's slums. Her want-to-be beau and eventually Sandman's strong right arm is the very capable Sergent Berrigan. Her elusive and mysterious brother is Jack a.k.a. Robin Hood, a notorious Highwayman. The club-footed Lord Alexander is his true, if somewhat flighty friend. Finally, there is Eleanor, Sandman's somtime finace. To add a bit more spice, Eleanor and Sandman are still desparately in love dispite her mother's objections. The opposition is rich, arrogant, and devoid of all scruples or any sense of honor. Members of the Seraphim Club consider themselves too rich or too well born to be subject to the law. The chase for the truth careens through the upper crust of English society, the slums of London and the normally bucolic English countryside. It is a wild and intriguing ride.
Rating:
Summary: Can we have more?
Review: Better known for his Richard Sharpe series, Cornwell, nevertheless, scores big with Gallow's Thief. Historical fiction, it is set in London, two years after Waterloo. It has all the usual ingredients of a sucessful historical (or detective, or mystery) novel - action, intrique, murder, sex, mystery. While the book does tend to formula in it's detective work (The backhanded compliment to Sherlock Holmes is appreciated.), all that is overcome by a wonderful cast of characters. Captain Rider Sandman is honorable, brave, consentious and, of course, poor as a church mouse. In order to keep body and soul together, he accepts the job of Inspector. In this case, he is given the uneviable task of determining the guilt or innocence of an already condemned man. Sandman's allies are a disparate group. Sally Hood, actress and sometime model for various painters, is Sandman's tutor in the slang and life of London's slums. Her want-to-be beau and eventually Sandman's strong right arm is the very capable Sergent Berrigan. Her elusive and mysterious brother is Jack a.k.a. Robin Hood, a notorious Highwayman. The club-footed Lord Alexander is his true, if somewhat flighty friend. Finally, there is Eleanor, Sandman's somtime finace. To add a bit more spice, Eleanor and Sandman are still desparately in love dispite her mother's objections. The opposition is rich, arrogant, and devoid of all scruples or any sense of honor. Members of the Seraphim Club consider themselves too rich or too well born to be subject to the law. The chase for the truth careens through the upper crust of English society, the slums of London and the normally bucolic English countryside. It is a wild and intriguing ride.
Rating:
Summary: This Sandman Keeps You Awake!
Review: Cornwell simply cannot be outdone in the historical adventure genre. While thoroughly describing the nature of the times with encyclopedic detail, we are never bogged down in dry facts: we can smell the noxious fumes of Newgate Prison, feel the disgrace heaped upon Sandman over his father's suicide and subsequent family downfall, worry over the skewed justice system that hangs for both petty thievery and grisly murder. We are aided in knowing the customs and colloquialisms of the middle and lower classes in that they are equally foreign to Sandman; we learn right along with him. If you are a Sharpe fan, don't expect nail-biting, in-your-face battles and sieges. While our hero, Rider Sandman, resides in the same era, he is no comparison to Sharpe in personality or vocation; this is strictly a murder mystery. Although no real clues per se, the journey to finding the killer is nonetheless enjoyable, both plot and characters full-fledged and engaging. This story is more about how Sandman deals with his new station in society, the varying strata of society, and the nature of people he meets and befriends throughout than it is about `who done it'. I would have liked to have seen more of the mysterious Jack "Robin" Hood, but Sandman's other allies make for a disparate, likable enough crowd. My one complaint is the anti-climatic ending. The suspense of the innocent's imminent death was irritatingly interrupted by hangman's procedures that had already been fully and adequately described in the beginning. The constant back and forth between the final "chase scene" and the hanging ruined the tension; you'd miss nothing if you skipped over the prison scenes at the end to get to the good stuff.
Rating:
Summary: This Sandman Keeps You Awake!
Review: Cornwell simply cannot be outdone in the historical adventure genre. While thoroughly describing the nature of the times with encyclopedic detail, we are never bogged down in dry facts: we can smell the noxious fumes of Newgate Prison, feel the disgrace heaped upon Sandman over his father's suicide and subsequent family downfall, worry over the skewed justice system that hangs for both petty thievery and grisly murder. We are aided in knowing the customs and colloquialisms of the middle and lower classes in that they are equally foreign to Sandman; we learn right along with him. If you are a Sharpe fan, don't expect nail-biting, in-your-face battles and sieges. While our hero, Rider Sandman, resides in the same era, he is no comparison to Sharpe in personality or vocation; this is strictly a murder mystery. Although no real clues per se, the journey to finding the killer is nonetheless enjoyable, both plot and characters full-fledged and engaging. This story is more about how Sandman deals with his new station in society, the varying strata of society, and the nature of people he meets and befriends throughout than it is about 'who done it'. I would have liked to have seen more of the mysterious Jack "Robin" Hood, but Sandman's other allies make for a disparate, likable enough crowd. My one complaint is the anti-climatic ending. The suspense of the innocent's imminent death was irritatingly interrupted by hangman's procedures that had already been fully and adequately described in the beginning. The constant back and forth between the final "chase scene" and the hanging ruined the tension; you'd miss nothing if you skipped over the prison scenes at the end to get to the good stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Rider Sandman is my hero
Review: I highly recommend this intelligent and exciting novel set in Regency England. Bernard Cornwell has given us an insolvent war hero, who also is an outstanding cricket player, recruited (on request of the queen) to determine if a man condemned to die is actually guilty of murder. The opening chapter of the book takes the reader to a hanging and follows it up with a breakfast of kidneys -- a most memorable start for this breakneck paced mystery. Rider Sandman is a very likeable hero, ethical in the extreme, who will not rest until he finds out who indeed murdered the lightskirted wife of an English nobleman. In the process, he recruits a former soldier, an opera girl and her highwayman brother, as well as friends who knew him before his father disgraced the family name and lost the family fortune. Along the way, he has to deal with conflicted feelings about his former love, whose parents forced the young lady in question to break off her engagment to Sandman when his father committed suicide. This book takes the reader from the city of London to the countryside and back again, with some side trips to the cricket field. According to the author's website, there are many fans who hope for a sequel to "Gallows Thief," however Mr Cornwell is not committing himself at this time. We live in hope!
Rating: 
Summary: I hoped for more
Review: Loved the Arthur series, but was disappointed in this one. Never finished it. Poor character development.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: My first Cornwell outing was the incredible Grail Quest series - followed by the weak novel of Stonehenge. As an avid reader of historical fiction I try to be as patient and lenient as possible, because allowances have to be made in order to drive the story. Being of fair mind I read Gallow's Thief hoping that Rider Sandman would become another Thomas of Hookton (Grail Quest). Alas, disappointment set in quickly. First sign of trouble was the weak over-used plot, which the reader becomes aware of from the beginning: condemned man, may be innocent - find real killer before it's too late. Okay, big deal - there's a reason why we all like the classics. We shortly meet Rider, back from the war with France (Sharpe series territory) whom we learn is good at Cricket, so good that he makes a small amount of money playing for various teams. Cricket was mentioned so much that I was beginning to wonder if I was missing a crucial "cricket as analogy" connection that would have brought some dimension to this story. I fear not - Rider Sandman never grows as a character beyond the two dimensions of Cricket star and veteran.
Bottom Line: The story plods along from start to the predictable (groan) finish with really no excitement or surprises. I think Cornwall is a great writer and I'll continue to read is work, but the unevenness of his novels is frustrating.
Rating:
Summary: I hope Mr. Cornwell gives continuity to this one.
Review: Really I think this one is an alternative subject on wich he moves with easyness and masterfully knowledge, and the hero is very different from Sharpe (but less cryptical references to cricket will be a plus really!...) and for once a relieve someone from the uppercrust society wich is not a pervert, a thief, a gambler, a fool or any other variety to wich we've been treated abundantly on the Sharpe's series...
I am a fan of the Sharpe's Novels, even the AWI "Redcoat" was good, I liked the Warlord Trilogy (wich I think is his better work up to date), found entertaining the sea novels, less good his ACW series (wich I found a pity not up to the Napoleonic period one's), disliked Stonehenge (a lot), and have read all Cornwell's writings since now except the second volume of the Grail Quest as I found the first one had a confusing plot (and really "Moyen Age" France is not my favorite period). So I like his style and way of writing but not always the subject.
Belive me this one is up to Sharpe's standarts and merites continuity (in fact will be a companion of Mallinson's M.Hervey in period...), and disgressing a bit is it true Sharpe's son (a Frenchman by birth) will be an officer on the Chasseurs d'Afrique and ride to the rescue of the Light Brigade in the Crimea? (I think I read something about that somewhere...)
Anyhow since my first Sharpe back in 1982 I have always bought and read his work wich I really found very good and always average or above, would not claim any more title to truly recommend this one, Cornwell's fans won't be dissapointed, and I think if given a second volume has the chances to get better and better (wich did not happen to Starbuck incidently...).
GET IT AND ENJOY.
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