A Perfect Execution

Binding, Tim

ISBN 10: 0330345648 / ISBN 13: 9780330345644

Published by Picador, London, 1996

About this Item

Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. An unread copy of the authors second novel. Jeremiah Bembo, the landlord of a local pub, never talks about his former role as the most respected and feared of Her Majesty's executioners. Until an old friend asks a simple question, prompting him to go back to the beginning, and to turn over the events of 1964. During the war an accident leaves him with one moving eye, warm and watchful, and one still eye, unflinching and unfeeling. The two halves of his life grow apart as, on occasions dictated by the law, Jem travels the country to fulfil his duties as executioner. But the balance becomes increasingly difficult to maintain as a murder is committed which touches his own life. Clean copy. Record # 378736.

Seller Inventory # 378736

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Perfect Execution
• Publisher: Picador, London
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0330345648
• ISBN 13: 9780330345644
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

Profoundly changed after witnessing the death of a wounded World War II soldier, young Jeremiah Bembo becomes what he considers to be a "merciful executioner," who brings compassion and release to the dying.

Review

From the author of In the Kingdom of Air comes A Perfect Execution, the tale of Jeremiah Bembo, England's greatest hangman. Propelled by a murder-mystery plot, the book is more the tale of the discovery of the hangman's true human identity than it is just a conventional search for the true identity of a murderer. Rich with metaphor--Bembo comes from a family of puppeteers and Binding doesn't shy away from references to manipulating the strings of destiny--and tautly executed, A Perfect Execution does an admirable job of getting inside the head of an executioner and rendering him both believable and believably human.