Gallows Thief

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Summary: If you loved the Richard Sharpe novels you will love this!
Review: 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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Summary: A Real Page Turner!
Review: This is the first Cornwell book I have read. It was excellent. If you like historical fiction you will be enthralled. The characters are well developed and the story moves quickly. The history of Newgate was facinating.