GALLOWS THIEF.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.[Complete number line 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2.] FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip (£16.99) to dw/dj.Bright, crisp,clean,matt,wrap-around colour pictorial illustrated dw/dj by Chris Moore,with gilt,brown and white lettering; with negligible shelf-wear or creasing to edges and corners - no major nicks or tears present.Both head+foot of spine/backstrip minimally bumped with reciprocal creasing and book is lightly cocked.Top edges slightly aged/toned with some light grubbing/dust-soiing,fore-edges similar; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners,appears unread - apart from my own collation.Bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered, publisher's original plain maroon cloth boards with bright,crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate coloured street map illustrated endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,1-280pp [paginated] includes a prologue and 10 chapters,and a historical note at rear; plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages and dedication. It is 1817 and the Old Bailey is one of London's busiest streets,for it is there,in front of Newgate Prison,that the crowds gather to watch the death throes of men and women on the gallows.Charles Corday,a portrait painter,has only seven days to live.He has been found guilty of murder,the murder of a Countess whom he was in the process of painting.He had been sentenced to hang.But political pressures make it expedient for the Home Office to confirm his guilt.The man appointed to carry out this investigation is Rider Sandman,whose qualifications for the job are non-existent.He was a soldier,he fought at Waterloo and he is famous as a cricketer,but now he is down on his luck.The offer of even a temporary post,promising a generous fee for not much effort,seems ideal. But when Rider Sandman begins his investigations,travelling from the stinking depths of Newgate to the perfumed drawing rooms of the aristocracy,he finds too much information that does not fit the verdict,and too many people determined to halt his activities.Sandman has a soldier's skills and he has remarkable,if unconventional,allies.But ranged against them is a cabal of some of the wealthiest and most ruthless men of Regency England.Sandman has a mere seven days to snatch an innocent man from the hungriest gallows of Europe.The hangman is waiting.It is a race against the noose. Want more Bernard CORNWELL titles? For similar and other titles, please search my MODERN FIRSTS,MODERN FIRSTS2 and SIGNED catalogues. Since April 2013,again in March 2015,and in this year too,the UK Post Office has altered it's Pricing in Proportion template,altering it's prices, weight allowances,dimensions and lowered it's qualifying compensation rates too!
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