A Hangman for Ghosts

Gabriel Carver, the convict hangman of Sydney Gaol, knows that none of his kind may return to England without the system's leave. Then three people are murdered, seemingly to protect the "Rats' Line," a mythical path to freedom that exists only in the fanciful daydreams of transported felons. But why kill to protect something that doesn't exist? When an innocent woman from Carver's past is fingered for one of the murders and faces execution at his hands, she threatens to reveal an...
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Gabriel Carver, the convict hangman of Sydney Gaol, knows that none of his kind may return to England without the system's leave. Then three people are murdered, seemingly to protect the "Rats' Line," a mythical path to freedom that exists only in the fanciful daydreams of transported felons. But why kill to protect something that doesn't exist? When an innocent woman from Carver's past is fingered for one of the murders and faces execution at his hands, she threatens to reveal an incriminating secret of his own unless he helps her. So Carver must try to unmask the killer among the convicts, soldiers, sailors, and fallen women of Australia's penal colony. If he can find the murderer, he may discover who is defying the system under its very nose. His search will ultimately take him back to London and a past he can never remake nor ever escape, not even at the edge of the world.