"Hello Ralph. You still mucking about with books?"
This is only an introduction to A Coin for the Hangman, the debut novel of Ralph Spurrier. I read about it online.
The 68-year-old new crime fiction writer is elated. He told Wiltshire Times, "It is an incredible feeling but also slightly frightening, to have a book published. It will be a surreal moment seeing something you have spent seven years on, from writing the first word of it to it being published, make it onto a bookshelf. It is a great feeling."
The book, published by Hookline Books and released on April 5, is set in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, England, during World War II. The narrative is in first person.
"I was looking for a typical West Country town and I thought Bradford on Avon was a perfect fit, particularly the lock-up on the bridge. I should have done this 40 years ago but it is never too late," Spurrier said of his 268-page novel.
The novel has an intriguing premise. The protagonist is a secondhand book dealer whose name is also Ralph. According to one synopsis, "When he finds the tools of England's last hangman, along with the diary of a condemned man he executed, he knows he has a mystery to solve. Was there a miscarriage of justice? Did the wrong man die at the noose?"
A more detailed plot outline reveals, "A secondhand book dealer...buys a job lot of books and artefacts found in a non-descript Sussex bungalow. He realises that he has in his hands a series of diaries and documents owned by Reginald Manning, who became the official hangman in the brief period after the UK’s last Chief Executioner Albert Pierrpoint retired but just before the abolition of capital punishment. What he finds is both chilling and fascinating. Is he reading about a miscarriage of justice on an epic scale? Is there anyone still alive who can verify the events described in the diaries?"
The Kindle editions are available on Amazon for $5.02 and Amazon UK for £3.79. You may read an extract on the publisher's website, here.
The 68-year-old new crime fiction writer is elated. He told Wiltshire Times, "It is an incredible feeling but also slightly frightening, to have a book published. It will be a surreal moment seeing something you have spent seven years on, from writing the first word of it to it being published, make it onto a bookshelf. It is a great feeling."
The book, published by Hookline Books and released on April 5, is set in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, England, during World War II. The narrative is in first person.
"I was looking for a typical West Country town and I thought Bradford on Avon was a perfect fit, particularly the lock-up on the bridge. I should have done this 40 years ago but it is never too late," Spurrier said of his 268-page novel.
The novel has an intriguing premise. The protagonist is a secondhand book dealer whose name is also Ralph. According to one synopsis, "When he finds the tools of England's last hangman, along with the diary of a condemned man he executed, he knows he has a mystery to solve. Was there a miscarriage of justice? Did the wrong man die at the noose?"
A more detailed plot outline reveals, "A secondhand book dealer...buys a job lot of books and artefacts found in a non-descript Sussex bungalow. He realises that he has in his hands a series of diaries and documents owned by Reginald Manning, who became the official hangman in the brief period after the UK’s last Chief Executioner Albert Pierrpoint retired but just before the abolition of capital punishment. What he finds is both chilling and fascinating. Is he reading about a miscarriage of justice on an epic scale? Is there anyone still alive who can verify the events described in the diaries?"
The Kindle editions are available on Amazon for $5.02 and Amazon UK for £3.79. You may read an extract on the publisher's website, here.
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