The paths of a secret paramour, a jilted lover, and a reluctant hangman cross in one fateful winter week in Galway, 1885. James Berry was the notorious hangman who ended the lives of over 130 criminals in Victorian Britain and Ireland. Tortured by nightmares as he tried to come to terms with the toll his gruesome work took on him, he played a central role in some of the crimes of the century, including the hanging of William Bury, the man suspected of being Jack the Ripper. This story centers on two notorious murders in Galway, keeping readers transfixed as they journey with this Berry through nineteenth-century Ireland in all its gruesome glory.
Dean Ruxton tells stories. Old ones, mostly. As an author and digital journalist, he is best known for writing that peers into the dark, fascinating corners of historical crime in Ireland. Dean works for The Irish Times, where he writes and curates his archive project, ‘Lost Leads’. His first book, When the Hangman Came to Galway, was published by Gill in 2018. He lives in Dublin.
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