The Hangman's Turn

Nottingham, 1810. A town of rebels, gin-shops and gallows — where a boy can hang for stealing a blanket, and the men who condemn him call it progress.

George Smith is the town's executioner. He is also its best-kept secret: a hook hidden in the noose, empty coffins buried in the marshes, and the innocent condemned quietly delivered to new lives. His creed is simple — a good hangman never lets an innocent die.

But to fight the men who fill his gallows, George must walk among them — into the chambers of the lions, and into the orbit of Benjamin Connolly: the wealthiest man in Nottingham, and the man the whole town calls the devil.

Every visit takes him deeper. Every secret gets heavier. And the devil, they say, sees everything.

Nottingham is a frightening place. And it is not the villains who make it so.