Customer Reviews

The Master Executioner

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's clear to me that many readers, and many professional reviewers, liked this book. I, unfortunately, couldn't manage to.

This is the story of Oscar Stone, professional hangman, from his Civil War experiences to nearly the turn of the century. I found the plot to be flat, lacking in climactic events and tension. Stone becomes a hangman, his wife leaves him, and then... well, he hangs people. The story is about how his profession changes him, and also about how the West changes during his lifespan. I found the plot dull, though, essentially because I couldn't get into Stone as a character. A psychiatrist would say he has a "flat affect". He has little personality, little passion. The end of the story, which should be devastating, lacks impact because of the character's lack of apparent emotion about anything. Even when he searches for his wife, when he learns his son is dead, we never really get into Stone's head. Stone's wife is an utter cipher, even when she explains her motives.

The book is written in a spare, occasionally awkward style. Dialogue stands out, with Rudd, Stone's mentor, being particularly well done in this regard. A use of language which some reviewers have interpreted as stark and stylish came across to me as quite boring. I got very little sense of the sounds, smells and sights of the West -- with the exception of a wealth of detail on carpentry and hanging ropes.

Estleman does seem to have a good grasp of his period, with only a few minor errors (La Matte for LeMat) apparent. However, he tends to "tell" rather than "show" his historical information, enhancing the dry, dull feeling of the book.

Estleman is at his peak. Mailer and King have both told execution stories, but neither can compare to the chilling reality Estleman brings to this tale. The diction rings true; nary a word is misplaced. And this care of the language makes his journey down this seldom travelled road both a reading pleasure and a commentary on man's motivation. If you read nothing else this summer, read this.

No one writes a better western than Loren D. Estleman. In The Master Executioner, Estleman tells the story of a hangman in the middle of the 19th century. As is always the case with this author, the reader is treated to incredible dialogue and characters that are immediately drawn with a few expert lines and details. I will not give away the ending, suffice to say this is a terribly sad novel about a complex and very unique man. Estleman is too fine a writer to pull at your heartstrings in a clichéd or obvious way. The man character, Executioner Oscar Stone, is not the sort of character that would easily win a reader's sympathy. He is, first and foremost, a hangman. He is also a hard, cold individual never at ease among his fellow humans. Yet, in Estleman's expert hands, this character lives and breaths and, finally, effects the reader very deeply.

Estleman is also the master of the authentic western. This book contains rich, detailed portraits of western towns, both large and small, from this time period. He is always accurate in the details, and I always feel Estleman gives me the most accurate portrait of how things really must have been in the West, more so than any other author. For the best taste of this, one should read Bloody Season by this author for the best account of the Shootout at the OK Corral.

Fascinating characters and great, original writing. Buy this book. You will not regret it.

Loren Estleman is known as an excellent storyteller. In fact, even Elmore Leonard has praised him for the way he can craft a tale. The interesting thing about this book is that he manages to examine and address one of the more pressing social issues of our time. This story about a hangman, takes a long look at the death penalty. Thankfully, it's done in a subtle matter. On its face, this is not a "political" book. Instead, it's an interesting read that will make you think long and hard about the death penalty when you finish the book at the end.

I downgraded the book to 4 stars because the chronological flow of the story was sometimes confusing, but overall, this book is worth the investment and would be a great book for discussion in a book club.

Back to the good old wild west days and yet the principle charector was a a true master at his trade. The ending is sad and leaves you wondering about the price he had to pay for the choices he made in life . A great read I recomend it to any lover of old west justice.

This is an unusual novel written by a someone who possesses true expertise in the craft of storytelling. Oscar Stone, the "master executioner" of the title, is an enigmatic man. He opposes capital punishment, and yet has hanged all manner of men and women over the course of his long career. Stone, a somewhat aesthetic figure who eschews the consumption of meat or strong drink, undertakes these acts of societally-sanctioned homicide on the basis of conscience, stating to those who make the inquiry that he does not subscribe to the law of an eye for an eye, but if executions are to take place, he is there to see the condemned die a quick death. Stone's life has frequently been an unhappy one. Unlucky at love, often blatantly shunned for the nature of his profession, this intelligent man lives alone, spends most of his time traveling from one place of execution to another, and as soon becomes obvious, has no real friends or close family. His is an almost monastic existence, monochromatically bleak even as the author takes time to present color and happiness being nearby him, once or twice even within his grasp. The presentation by Estleman of Stone as this sort of person is what raises to fascination what could have become a rote tabloid-esque account of crime and punishment in the old west: something The Master Executioner definitely is not. Yes, there are tales of sanguine misdeeds, some domestic, others carried out for profit by criminals as dark and brutal as could be imagined, but this novel is at its heart a character study, and a good one at that.

I really liked this book. It was well-written and very informative. I had no idea that there was so much science involved in hanging. After you read the book, you understand how it was that Saddam was decapitated during his hanging. He would have been better served had the protagonist of the novel been there.

What I really want to know is why, how, why do they turn to the left a half turn? They are just hanging from a rope. How does the rope know?

Tom Horn had a perfect hanging in Steve McQueen's movie. "... he joined the others in that graceful half turn to the left."

"The rope caught with a quivering twang, a gentle bass note heard only by Stone...The rope creaked, rotating a half turn to the left."

"The rope creaked and the body turned halfway around to the left, a pendulum drifting to a halt."

"The platform twitched...then it swayed in accompaniment with the creaking of the rope as the body completed its semi revolution to the left."

The "Tombstone Epitaph," writer was surprised by the ending of the "Master Executioner." Nevertheless, the ending was foretold about a hundred pages in when Rudd revealed, "Hell's Bells, you could fill a book with them...!" ---o0o---

This is my first western that I have read by Loren Estleman.
I have read some of his detective fiction prior to reading this novel. I think he has a better handle on the western field than he does the mystery or PI field. Oscar Stone is one of the most interesting and misunderstood characters that you will meet between the pages of a novel. He is a master of his trade, no matter which trade that might be. He will chose a trade that will cost him his marriage and leave him a lonely & confused person.
The book drags a little toward the end, but otherwise this is a
really interesting novel. The final meeting between Oscar and
Gretchen is both revealing and sad.

A teenager enlists in the Union army after his brother is killed at Gettysburg. After 20 months service that includes witnessing a summary military hanging, he walks home to Pennsylvania. After apprenticing as a carpenter, he marries and moves to Kansas a year behind the wave he thought would make his fortune. His first job is to build a scaffold. Soon, he leaves his wife to become the master executioner.

A tightly told meditation on choice, responsibility, authority, and capital punishment. Set long before Nuremburg but right in the middle of our debates about capital punshment and the U.S. role in the world. A fresh, dare I say entertaining, presentation without argument or pedentry.

This is the first of Estleman's books I have read. He is a great story teller. I can't wait to read more. The best book I read in 2001.