Jeremiah Bembo lives quietly growing fruit and vegetables which his wife Judith sells at the local market. In secret, under the name of Solomon Straw, he travels the country as England's executioner, carrying out the hangings required by law. In a post-war provincial Britain seamed with commonplace corruption, he strives to maintain a balance of compassion and justice, until a murder is committed which brings his two lives into an inevitable collision. 'A brilliant, terrifying and haunting novel ...it has an almost Dickensian moral clarity ...It combines all the packed action of a thriller with a vision remarkable for its breadth and for its humanity' Evening Standard 'A compelling mixture of murder-mystery, Greek tragedy and love story ...In its exploration of human depravity Tim Binding, like his executioner hero, has taken on a terrible task with grace and intelligence' Sunday Telegraph
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
From the author of In the Kingdom of Air comes A Perfect Execution, the tale of Jeremiah Bembo, England's greatest hangman. Propelled by a murder-mystery plot, the book is more the tale of the discovery of the hangman's true human identity than it is just a conventional search for the true identity of a murderer. Rich with metaphor--Bembo comes from a family of puppeteers and Binding doesn't shy away from references to manipulating the strings of destiny--and tautly executed, A Perfect Execution does an admirable job of getting inside the head of an executioner and rendering him both believable and believably human.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Masterful storytelling and a winning mix of tenderness and morbidity hold the reader in thrall throughout this imaginative tale of retribution, compassion and redemption set largely in 1960s England. As a young man during WWII, in a village near Oxford, Jeremiah Bembo sees his life changed by German pilots flying overhead. An unsuccessful bombing unites him with his wife; the explosive crash of a reconnaissance plane takes out his eye; and the villagers' sadistic torture of a downed pilot supplies him with his eventual calling. To the chagrin of his passionate wife, Judith, and brash cousin Will, her former suitor, Jeremiah will take on a second identity as England's foremost hangman, the renowned and feared Solomon Straw. It's his obsession to bring order?in the form of technical skill and professional detachment?to the chaos of death. But Jeremiah's two worlds inevitably collide, offering him a chance to normalize and redeem his empty emotional life?with one final execution. Binding (In the Kingdom of Air) documents the logistics of hanging in fascinating detail, from mechanics to psychology to style, as he weaves a strangely poignant and suspenseful story. His evocative prose and sure-handed narrative bring this odd, old-fashioned yarn vividly to life.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A perfectly executed novel.,
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This review is from: A Perfect Execution (Hardcover)
A perfectly executed novel. Set in England during the 1950s and 1960s, the story follows Jem, known as Solomon Straw, a hangman for England. Solomon for wisdom and Straw representing the fraility of man. The novel examines the heart of men, through a very telling story. Although set in the 20th century, it felt like 19th century English literature with the small town British community where all the main characters interweave in believeable ways.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant psychological whodunnit with a poetic subtext,
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This review is from: A Perfect Execution (Hardcover)
The book starts with the chilling logistics of penal execution and continues to dig behind the motivation of the key characters. The plot is something of a whodunnit, but is executed with poetic beauty. Perhaps not a "must read", but certainly a "should read"
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow,
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This review is from: Perfect Execution (Paperback)
What a pleasure. A real novel --no gimics, but nice twists and turns that are credible. Wonderful character development, humor in spots where it works. A page turner with class. I have also read Man Overboard and the one set in the English Channel Islands. This one is the best of those three.
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