Gallows Thief (Reviews)

GALLOWS THIEF
Mon 13 May 2002
Booklist

Cornwell, author of the best-selling Richard Sharpe saga, turns his attention from the battlefield in this meticulously crafted historical mystery. After successfully defending his country at Waterloo, Captain Rider Sandman returns to England to face bankruptcy and disgrace. Unable to pay off his enormous gambling debts, Rider’s father has committed suicide, leaving his son to uphold the family honor. Penniless and without prospects, Rider sells his commission to house his mother and younger sister. Looking for any type of honest work that will enable him to live and to pay off some of his father’s creditors, he accepts an assignment to investigate the circumstances of the brutal rape and murder of the countess of Avebury. Though a hapless young portrait painter has already been convicted of the crime, Sandman begins to suspect well-connected members of the aristocracy have framed him. Racing against time to save a man from the gallows, his inquiries lead him into the seamy underbelly of upper-class Regency society. Cornwell’s flair for authentic detailing distinguishes this suspenseful, action-packed period whodunit.