Why a Booktrail?
1930: Are you ready to meet Rachel Savernake?
The Gallows Court
What you need to know before your trail
Sooty, sulphurous, and malign: no woman should be out on a night like this. A spate of violent deaths – the details too foul to print – has horrified the capital and the smog-bound streets are deserted. But Rachel Savernake – the enigmatic daughter of a notorious hanging judge – is no ordinary woman. To Scotland Yard’s embarrassment, she solved the Chorus Girl Murder, and now she’s on the trail of another killer.
Jacob Flint, a young newspaperman temporarily manning The Clarion’s crime desk, is looking for the scoop that will make his name. He’s certain there is more to the Miss Savernake’s amateur sleuthing than meets the eye. He’s not the only one. His predecessor on the crime desk was of a similar mind – not that Mr Betts is ever expected to regain consciousness after that unfortunate accident…
Flint’s pursuit of Rachel Savernake will draw him ever-deeper into a labyrinth of deception and corruption. Murder-by-murder, he’ll be swept ever-closer to its dark heart – to that ancient place of execution, where it all began and where it will finally end: Gallows Court.
Locations
Reset- England - London
- A: Dominion Theatre
- B: Limehouse
- C: Fleet Street
- D: Site of Tyburn Gallows
Travel Guide
The London of Rachel Savernake
Set largely in 1930s London the novel opens on the remote Irish island of Gaunt. The novel moves to London as we follow Rachel Savernake who has established herself in London following the death of her father.
London at this time was awash with atmosphere; this is an exciting city full of theatres, heiresses, landladies, magicians and dark magic. Slightly further afiekd in Oxford we have a rather dubious orphanage.
The Clarion – a newspaper in London where Jacob Flint is a guileless young crime reporter . Tom Betts, the chief crime
Scotland Yard is a large part of the novel and iswhere we meet detective, Inspector Oakes.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Gallows Court
Destination: London Author/guide:Martin Edwards Departure Time: 1930
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