Rating: 
Summary: A case against capital punishment
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Cornwell strikes back
Review: This is a new departure for the author, an historical whodunnit set in 1817. It works very well - for my money the best thing he's done in recent years. The atmosphere is spot on, the plot is well worked out, character and dialog ring just right. It makes for a real page-turner, almost (but not quite) in the class of vintage Sharpe. The leading character is a sort of upmarket Richard Sharpe: ex-Captain Rider Sandman, impoverished hero of the Peninsular War and Waterloo, a gentleman. Even the tough sidekick who gets co-opted after the usual teething troubles is a tad upmarket: an ex-Sergeant of the First (Grenadier) Guards. Their task is to re-investigate the murder of a beautiful Countess (former 'actress'), for which a hapless young fellow has been railroaded and is due to hang in a week. The trail leads from London low-life to the heights of society, and it's well worth following. I hope this is the start of a new series, although I don't quite see where it will go from here. Two warnings: if you like big battles, or even small ones, sorry, this is different - there aren't any (for me that isn't essential even in Sharpe stories). And there's quite a lot of talk about cricket, but it's only incidental (think of it as a superior kind of baseball).
Rating: 
Summary: riches-to-rags
Review: 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!
Rating:
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.
Rating: 
Summary: A good book for the beach... and not much else.
Review: 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.)
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