Gallows Thief by Bernard Cornwell

It is 1817 and the Old Bailey is one of London's busiest streets, for it is there, in front of Newgate Prison, that the crowds gather to watch the death throes of men and women on the gallows.

Charles Corday, a portrait painter, has only seven days to live. He has been found guilty of murder, the murder of a Countess whom he was in the process of painting. He had been sentenced to hang.

But political pressures make it expedient for the Home Office to confirm his guilt. The man appointed to carry out this investigation is Rider Sandman, whose qualifications for the job are non-existent. He was a soldier, he fought at Waterloo and he is famous as a cricketer, but now he is down on his luck. The offer of even a temporary post, promising a generous fee for not much effort, seems ideal.

When Rider Sandman begins his investigations, travelling from the stinking depths of Newgate to the perfumed drawing rooms of the aristocracy, he finds too much information that does not fit the verdict and too many determined to halt his activities.

Sandman has a mere seven days to snatch an innocent man from the hungriest gallows of Europe. The hangman is waiting in this race against the noose.

281 page large paperback in good condition.

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