"He died game," the justice of peace says.
There is a murmur of assent from those around. Yes, he died game.

Felt a little tearful at the end of this. Hard not to be as a mother of a son. Brilliantly written by Kidman.

[2.5] This is a book of historical fiction based on the hanging of Albert "Paddy" Black for the killing of his itinerant 'friend'. Over the course of the novel the author makes it clear that she believes that the charge of murder was unjust. I understand what was trying to be achieved, but the moral debate over the death sentence that the novel's tag line and blurb suggest comes and goes in a few paragraphs...the rest is a rather repetitive recounting of a lot of witness testimonies written in such a way that you believe Paddy was given a somewhat rigged trial and an unfair death sentence. I fully believe this is probably true, however, as a novel, I would have been more interested to read this if the whole thing had been more ambiguous, had made you think about what you want to believe and whether you can support the death sentence....generally I just thought that there was a way for this to have been a better story.

Largely, this is because I feel a bit misled about the nature of the book. This is well written historical fiction with a great sense of time and place, with a clear level of research supporting the main character's experience of the world that feels very authentic. Overall, this is one I enjoyed whilst reading but wasn't as inveested in as I could have been - I wasn't desperate to get back to it when I wasn't reading.

3.5

This book intrigued me from the very start and I was thrilled when Gallic Books gave me the opportunity to read it. Many thanks to Gallic Books for my gifted copy of the book. Fiona Kidman has written a book that is part fact, part fictionalised accounts about one of the last criminals to be sentenced to death in New Zealand in the 1950s.

Based upon the documentation from the trial, and additional research, this book is a fictional account of the real life of Albert Laurence Black, or Paddy as he was known by friends, who moved as a young man, to New Zealand, in search of a better life than the life he had in Belfast with his parents and younger brother. It follows his arrival in New Zealand, and what lead to him to becoming a caretaker of a boarding house where his path crossed with that of Alan Jacques, who he was eventually convicted of murdering, and sentenced to death.

With my own legal background, I was horrified to read of the trial, and how it was affected by the prejudices of New Zealand society, where there were concerns that the morality of young people was being affected by the influx of immigrants and outward influences, such as the writing of Mickey Spillane, and rock and roll music. It is clear that this is a story of a young man who was a victim of a miscarriage of justice, having been judged more harshly as an immigrant. Not all witnesses were called and there were other errors in the trial which suggested that his treatment in the courts was inadequate. It also seems strange and sadly disappointing that some 60 years later, immigrants are still unfairly judged the world over, and castigated simply because they have arrived in a new country in search of a better life.

I found this book was sympathetically written but it left me feeling so angry at the injustice of it all, which I suppose is the intent. Applying laws here in the present day, at the very most Paddy Black would have been convicted of manslaughter, and not murder, and that in itself is an injustice. He was the penultimate person to be sentenced to death in New Zealand, and we can but hope that such injustices are a thing of the past. This was a fascinating read, and is a book I can heartily recommend.

3.5 stars

A sensitively written account that combines the facts of a true story around the criminal trial of a young man from Belfast, Northern Ireland who arrives in NZ in the 1950's on a £10 ticket with guaranteed work for 2 yeas, who never quite fits in and discovers it is a whole lot more expensive to return, if you decide you don't want to stay.

Initially he works in Wellington where he sticks with his friend Peter, a young man from Liverpool who he met on the boat, they move in as private boarders with a young widow and her children, but the letters from home give Albert Black itchy feet and so he heads up to Auckland in search of better paid work to save for his passage home.

He is a gentle, kind lad, one his landlady trust immediately to take care of her boarding house while she tends to a sick friend. A little lonely he begins to frequent a cafe where he comes across a violent young man, who will cause a significant change in his life's trajectory.

The volatile man calls himself Johnny McBride after a character in a Mickey Spillane novel,he is quick to settle any dispute with his fists and his feet and when Albert regrest allowing him stay a few nights and the guy overstays his welcome their relationship turns sour and then violent, resulting in a death.

Albert is tried for murder at a time when the death penalty had been brought back into use (with a change of govt to a more right wing party that was taking a hardline on what they perceived as immoral youth and free in expressing publicly their prejudice against and contempt for outsiders).

The offender is not one of ours. It is unfortunate that we got this undesirable from his homeland.

Albert effectively becomes a scapegoat for a violent message they want to deliver to wayward youth, and with the odds stacked against him, a terrible verdict is delivered.

...in the eyes of God as in those of conscience, what is a crime when individuals do it is no less an offence when society commits the deed. Victor Hugo

What a treat to find some new NZ fiction at my local library! This novel is based on the story of the second-to-last person to be executed in NZ, before capital punishment was definitively outlawed (it was banned at least once but then reinstated). Kidman has done a lovely job of recreating life in Wellington, then later Auckland, at that time. I also enjoyed how she delved into the imagined experience of those on the jury and those who worked at the jail and performed executions, as well as the moral quandary of a blanket death sentence law for murder, regardless of the nuances of the situation. I definitely recommend this.