First published 2019
The Yorkshire moors hold dark secrets in this raw, visceral tale of survival and retribution. A traveling hangman arrives in a remote village, offering his professional services to local authorities during a time of brutal economic desperation. As he sets up his gallows and begins his grim work, the community becomes entangled in a dangerous dance of power, violence, and moral reckoning. Each execution shifts the delicate balance of local justice, drawing unexpected lines between survival and savagery. The hangman's presence becomes a catalyst that exposes the raw, unspoken tensions simmering beneath the village's weathered surface. What begins as a professional duty spirals into a primal confrontation with the darkest impulses of human nature. Myers crafts a stark meditation on violence, survival, and the thin line between executioner and condemned.
Genres: fiction, 20th-century, crime, 21st-century, 19th-century, dark
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking, visceral
Tropes: moral-ambiguity, power-dynamics, primal-impulses
Setting: Yorkshire
Period: 19th-Century, 20th-Century
370 pages · Paperback · Bloomsbury Publishing
Content warnings: death, graphic-violence, violence