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Gallows Thief cover art

Gallows Thief

By: Bernard Cornwell
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
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Summary

1820s Britain: after the wars with France, when unemployment was high and soldiers could be paid off, when the government was desperately afraid of social unrest, any crime was drastically punished and thousands were hung. But one could petition the King and an investigation might ensue…

The man in the dark cell in Newgate Prison was due to hang in a week. He had been found guilty of murdering the aristocrat whose portrait he was painting. He claimed to be innocent – but then the hangman had never hung a guilty man, he said. But even in 1820, the Home Secretary could occasionally use his powers to grant mercy if his investigator found cause and Rider Sandman, once of the First Foot Guards, is given the job.

Rider Sandman, a hero of Waterloo, has family debts to repay but when his first steps in the investigations produce a sizeable bribe to look the other way, this only arouses his smouldering anger over the condition of England, a country which he and others in Wellington's army had fought to preserve. Stepping between gentlemen's clubs and taverns, talking to aristocrats, fashionable painters, their models, and their mistresses, dodging professional cut-throats and deceptive swordsmen, Sandman uncovers a conspiracy of silence, a group whose proudest boast was that they would do anything for any one of them.

Sandman is a wonderful character, as yet undaunted by the sleazy streets, dank jails or the looming scaffold, and uncorrupted by politicians, sneering gentlemen or frightening bruisers, an investigator in the making and a brilliant, but very different, hero for all Bernard Cornwell fans.

©2001 Bernard Cornwell (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"Bernard Cornwell is a literary miracle. Year after year, hail, rain, snow, war and political upheavals fail to prevent him from producing the most entertaining and readable historical novels of his generation…Cornwell at his best is utterly compelling. And this is Cornwell at his best." (Daily Mail)

"Page for page, sentence for sentence, scene for heart-stopping scene GALLOWS THIEF is the strongest historical novel I have read this year…he tells a cracking yarn and fills it with vivid characters and writes crisp dialogue and gets the period detail right..it is hard to stop reading…it is masterly." (Sunday Telegraph)

What listeners say about Gallows Thief

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

"He'll paint" Worth The Wait.

Cornwell and Keeble absolutely excellent. Perhaps they should be combined into 'Cornble' or 'Keebwell '. I loved everything about this audio book. These two men are both in a Mastercraft of their own. The story slowly unfolds and you are introduced to the characters, of men who had fought at Waterloo, and of those who did not, the Femme-Fatale who.........find out for yourselves. You might call this a Napoleonic fiction story but it's just a few characters who were there. I'm not into fiction stories and I got this book for £3.00 because I've heard the other 182 audio books several times, those books are Napoleonic non-fiction and Warhammer. But my God am I glad I got this book. Being disabled I get a lot of time to lay down, and now my library is about to take a new direction. GET THIS AUDIO-BOOK. YOU WILL LOVE IT! Hoo-Rah!

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Powerful story.

Bernard Cornwell is no stranger to writing about the early 19th Century. His classivSharpe series are a tour de force in both historical fiction and adventure writing. Here, he gives us another bad ass soldier hero in Captain Rider Sandman. late of 52nd Foot and hero of Waterloo.

Soldiers struggle post war and a penurious Sandman takes a commission from the Home Office investigating a capital conviction for a Countess' murder. This being Cornwell, the conviction is far from safe and a reluctant Sandman gets dragged into conspiracy and adventure. Here are all the Cornwell tropes
and some teasing references to a giant blind ex soldier and a bunch of rifleman who once saved Sandman.

This is a strong story that feeds into Cornwell's abhorrence of the Death Penalty in an era where justice was cold, swift and merciless. Jonathan Keble provides a superb narration, imparting tension, excitement and keeping each character distinct.

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3 people found this helpful

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gallows thief

very well read with the all the existing expectations of seeing a long awaited film with the characters brought to life by the great Johnathan keeble this man was made for reading such well written story's by a great story writer well worth the time and money to listen to this book

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Gallows Thief

It’s a real pity Bernard Cornwell hasn’t used this character for a series of books. Thoroughly enjoyable rollicking listen, great characters well read as ever by the excellent Jonathan Keeble.

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Excellent racey period piece

not my usual stuff more sci-fi based add this for a change was great ! Very racy, very exciting story well written, well worth listening to very compelling!

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loved it...great characters...superb narration ...

Excellent ...loved the rich voice and characterisations. Hopeful for further adventures. Too good not to.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

The poorest work from Bernard Cornwell

What would have made Gallows Thief better?

Better storyline, pacing, balance and for B. Cornwell to perform his usual magic

Has Gallows Thief put you off other books in this genre?

No

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Hard to do better with such a poorly written story

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Gallows Thief?

Endless narations about the prison, sermons, the first half doesn't get into any action...

Any additional comments?

The poorest performance from B. Cornwell. Did he really write this?

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Great reader, good story elements, but...

What did you like best about Gallows Thief? What did you like least?

The reader was great, and did a great job of amplifying what suspense and action the story contained. Good characterisation, and confident narration that was enjoyable to listen to.The story contained some interesting elements, and was in essence a kind of pulp adventure in 19th century London. The main character was good, I thought believable, and was a good foil (as a principled man, without being holier-than-thou) to the various monstrous grotesques (corrupt, lascivious etc) that people most of the rest of the book. I charmingly ingenuous love of cricket, which is the best plot driver in the book; we just wants to get all this nonsense cleared away so he can get back to playing cricket. 'Themes' addressed (evil of capital punishment, the prevalence of corruption, the deflated 'what was it all for' feeling following the Napoleonic wars) were satisfying and well-researched.These good elements, however, felt as though they'd been gathered from the author's notes and, judged too good to waste, were hung on one of the most unsatisfying and absurd overall plots I've read. a) A quest to save a man from unjust hanging; a man who neither the hero, the reader, nor ANY of the characters in the story (right down to the 'London mob' walk-on parts) feel any kind of liking for. b) The 'twist' loudly telegraphed about an hour or so before the main character's discovery of it, by which time it has lost all its narrative force. c) an ending practically mid-sentence, with only implied resolution for the likeable Captain Sandman re: the young lady beyond his social reach. d) Two chief plot points hanging on unbelievable feats of coercion by Sandman: he gets one character to reveal what they know by threatening to withhold his reminiscences about Waterloo, and another by saying that wasps (of which the character is apparently frightened) are larger in the penal colonies of Australia than in England.More than this, there was very little in the way of investigative challenge; it was more the struggle of Sandman against 18th century logistics and communications. In the first chapters, we realise that the prisoner isn't guilty, and that there's a witness that can prove this. The rest of the book is about finding the witness, who did indeed see who did it, and relates this information to the authorities, who then reverse the hanging decision. All that said, I saw it through, and I probably wouldn't be so disappointed if the characters hadn't been engaging, and the world so well-evoked. I blame the editor.

What could Bernard Cornwell have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Resolve Sandman's financial and marital situation properly.Abandon the (presumably deliberate?) verbatim repetition of sentences in the first and final hanging sections.
Make more of the highwayman HoodRationalise the antagonists (Robin Holloway? What function?)
Made the 'mystery' element a bit denser and more satisfyingOtherwise, keep the three(/four) main characters as they are, and write them into a better-conceied plot in a sequel.

Was Gallows Thief worth the listening time?

Yyyyyyyyy…nnnnn…..yes. Ultimately.

Any additional comments?

Hope we see the world and the characters again; plotting and genre (mystery/investigation) could do with work.

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  • Mr
  • 27-05-15

A really good story

I have listened to and read many of Cornwells book.
I enjoyed the story and the delivery was excellent.
I recommend it.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fantastic

Genuinely gutted he didn't write more of these I thought it was brilliant. Superb narration by Jonathan Keeble as usual.

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