[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.