Gallows Thief [Hardcover]

Bernard Cornwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2002

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.

Editorial Reviews

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, MA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harper (April 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060082739
• ISBN-13: 978-0060082734
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #756,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bernard Cornwell was born in London in 1944 - a 'warbaby' - whose father was a Canadian airman and mother in Britain's Women's Auxiliary Air Force. He was adopted by a family in Essex who belonged to a religious sect called the Peculiar People (and they were), but escaped to London University and, after a stint as a teacher, he joined BBC Television where he worked for the next 10 years. He began as a researcher on the Nationwide programme and ended as Head of Current Affairs Television for the BBC in Northern Ireland. It was while working in Belfast that he met Judy, a visiting American, and fell in love. Judy was unable to move to Britain for family reasons so Bernard went to the States where he was refused a Green Card. He decided to earn a living by writing, a job that did not need a permit from the US government - and for some years he had been wanting to write the adventures of a British soldier in the Napoleonic wars - and so the Sharpe series was born. Bernard and Judy married in 1980, are still married, still live in the States and he is still writing Sharpe.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A swinging yarn, April 30, 2002

By 

Peter Mackay "surgeonsmate" (Campbell, ACT Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gallows Thief (Hardcover)

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.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cornwell doesn't leave us hanging!, September 22, 2002

By 

Billy J. Hobbs "Bill Hobbs" (Tyler, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gallows Thief (Hardcover)

... 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. ...

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a terrifically good and exciting read, May 1, 2002

By 

tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gallows Thief (Hardcover)

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.