Nottingham, 1810. A town of rebels, gin-shops and gallows — where a boy can hang for stealing a blanket, and the men who condemn him call it progress.George Smith is the town's executioner. He is also its best-kept secret: a hook hidden in the noose, empty coffins buried in the marshes, and the innocent condemned quietly delivered to new lives. His creed is simple — a good hangman never lets an innocent die.But to fight the men who fill his gallows, George must walk among them — into the chambers of the lions, and into the orbit of Benjamin Connolly: the wealthiest man in Nottingham, and the man the whole town calls the devil.Every visit takes him deeper. Every secret gets heavier. And the devil, they say, sees everything.Nottingham is a frightening place. And it is not the villains who make it so.