false 1350516 <![CDATA[Lord High Executioner: Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen and Their Kind]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536m/1350516.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536s/1350516.jpg 1350516 6 1340195 1996 Lord High Executioner: Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen and Their Kind total:10|5:5|4:2|3:2|2:1| 10 41 14 1 176053 3.29 124 31 58160724 1740824 1507417 1550137867 9781550137866 1 <![CDATA[Lord High Executioner: An Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen, and Their Kind]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1184430945m/1507417.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1184430945s/1507417.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1507417.Lord_High_Executioner_An_Unashamed_Look_at_Hangmen_Headsmen_and_Their_Kind 3.67 3 In Lord High Executioner, Howard Engel produces a wonderfully wise and witty social history of the men and women who represent our agents of death, and who have done our dirty work over the centuries.

]]> 1996 3 0 false Fri Jun 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 02 05:49:16 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 05 05:42:33 -0700 2009 more...]]> 82360404 2204910 1507417 1550137867 9781550137866 1 <![CDATA[Lord High Executioner: An Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen, and Their Kind]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1184430945m/1507417.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1184430945s/1507417.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1507417.Lord_High_Executioner_An_Unashamed_Look_at_Hangmen_Headsmen_and_Their_Kind 4.10 10 In Lord High Executioner, Howard Engel produces a wonderfully wise and witty social history of the men and women who represent our agents of death, and who have done our dirty work over the centuries.

]]> 1996 0 0 false Mon Dec 28 17:34:09 -0800 2009 Mon Dec 28 17:34:09 -0800 2009 59376369 2040938 1507417 1550137867 9781550137866 1 <![CDATA[Lord High Executioner: An Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen, and Their Kind]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1184430945m/1507417.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1184430945s/1507417.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1507417.Lord_High_Executioner_An_Unashamed_Look_at_Hangmen_Headsmen_and_Their_Kind 4.10 10 In Lord High Executioner, Howard Engel produces a wonderfully wise and witty social history of the men and women who represent our agents of death, and who have done our dirty work over the centuries.

]]> 1996 0 0 false Fri Jun 12 02:57:23 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 02:57:23 -0700 2009 57627253 2042332 1350516 186105159X 9781861051592 0 <![CDATA[Lord High Executioner: Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen and Their Kind]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536m/1350516.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536s/1350516.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1350516.Lord_High_Executioner_Unashamed_Look_at_Hangmen_Headsmen_and_Their_Kind 4.17 6 1996 0 0 false Thu May 28 11:04:34 -0700 2009 Thu May 28 11:04:34 -0700 2009 49148072 54598 1350516 186105159X 9781861051592 0 <![CDATA[Lord High Executioner: Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen and Their Kind]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536m/1350516.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536s/1350516.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1350516.Lord_High_Executioner_Unashamed_Look_at_Hangmen_Headsmen_and_Their_Kind 4.10 10 1996 2 0 false Fri Mar 13 08:55:21 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 13 08:55:21 -0700 2009 33013592 769914 1350516 186105159X 9781861051592 0 <![CDATA[Lord High Executioner: Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen and Their Kind]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536m/1350516.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536s/1350516.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1350516.Lord_High_Executioner_Unashamed_Look_at_Hangmen_Headsmen_and_Their_Kind 4.10 10 1996 5 0 false Tue Sep 16 11:32:52 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 16 11:32:52 -0700 2008 29213537 1363286 1350516 186105159X 9781861051592 0 <![CDATA[Lord High Executioner: Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen and Their Kind]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536m/1350516.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536s/1350516.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1350516.Lord_High_Executioner_Unashamed_Look_at_Hangmen_Headsmen_and_Their_Kind 4.10 10 1996 5 0 false Mon Aug 04 09:47:07 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 04 09:47:10 -0700 2008 19010943 1037137 1507417 1550137867 9781550137866 1 <![CDATA[Lord High Executioner: An Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen, and Their Kind]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1184430945m/1507417.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1184430945s/1507417.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1507417.Lord_High_Executioner_An_Unashamed_Look_at_Hangmen_Headsmen_and_Their_Kind 4.10 10 In Lord High Executioner, Howard Engel produces a wonderfully wise and witty social history of the men and women who represent our agents of death, and who have done our dirty work over the centuries.

]]> 1996 3 0 false Sun Mar 30 13:27:27 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 30 13:27:27 -0700 2008 17481262 282688 1507417 1550137867 9781550137866 1 <![CDATA[Lord High Executioner: An Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen, and Their Kind]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1184430945m/1507417.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1184430945s/1507417.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1507417.Lord_High_Executioner_An_Unashamed_Look_at_Hangmen_Headsmen_and_Their_Kind 4.10 10 In Lord High Executioner, Howard Engel produces a wonderfully wise and witty social history of the men and women who represent our agents of death, and who have done our dirty work over the centuries.

]]> 1996 5 0 false Mon Mar 10 19:41:15 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 10 19:41:15 -0700 2008 16935339 656873 1350516 186105159X 9781861051592 0 <![CDATA[Lord High Executioner: Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen and Their Kind]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536m/1350516.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536s/1350516.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1350516.Lord_High_Executioner_Unashamed_Look_at_Hangmen_Headsmen_and_Their_Kind 4.10 10 1996 4 0 false Mon Mar 03 16:46:01 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 03 16:46:01 -0800 2008 13819586 838705 2686382 1550138227 9781550138221 0 <![CDATA[Lord High Executioner : An Unashamed Look At Hangmen, Headsmen, And Their Kind]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2686382.Lord_High_Executioner_An_Unashamed_Look_At_Hangmen_Headsmen_And_Their_Kind 5.00 1 Lord High Executioner. "They are the bogeymen of our worst nightmares, the shape of our darkest fears." And yet what a fascinating and entertaining group of folks they actually turn out to be, at least in Engel's lively historical account of death--by hanging, drowning, burning, beheading, electrocution, and other more exotic means. Engel of course authored the famous Benny Cooperman mysteries, and for that series won the Arthur Ellis Award for Crime Fiction in 1984. (Incidentally, Arthur Ellis, the most famous of Canadian hangmen, is one of the book's subjects.) It doesn't seem right to call this light reading, but Engel's prose is undeniably engaging, fast-paced, and never weighed down by its subject matter: "The touch of a hangman's hand was said to be a sure cure for warts, wens and other blemishes, but, as Douglas Jerrold noted in Punch, hanging was supposed to cure murder, and that didn't work either." Even for an opponent of capital punishment like Engel, there is something inherently, if perversely, compelling about this subject matter. Consider the "death of a thousand cuts," say, where the condemned is dismembered with knives labelled with different body parts and drawn at random from a basket, or a punishment for adultery that required a woman to be "sown into a sack in company with an ape, a poisonous snake, a dog, and a cockerel, and flung into a pool to drown." The author has obviously done a lot of research, but this is not a scholarly book: Engel describes it as "literary and curious." For those who find themselves still morbidly captivated after reading Lord High Executioner, a bibliography has been included. --Russell Prather]]> 1996 5 0 false Mon Jan 28 09:00:52 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 28 09:00:52 -0800 2008 8654566 331115 1350516 186105159X 9781861051592 0 <![CDATA[Lord High Executioner: Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen and Their Kind]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536m/1350516.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536s/1350516.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1350516.Lord_High_Executioner_Unashamed_Look_at_Hangmen_Headsmen_and_Their_Kind 4.10 10 1996 0 0 false Sun Nov 04 11:28:37 -0800 2007 Sun Nov 04 11:29:00 -0800 2007 6512310 245148 1350516 186105159X 9781861051592 0 <![CDATA[Lord High Executioner: Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen and Their Kind]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536m/1350516.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536s/1350516.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1350516.Lord_High_Executioner_Unashamed_Look_at_Hangmen_Headsmen_and_Their_Kind 4.10 10 1996 5 0 false Thu Sep 20 16:51:57 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 20 16:51:57 -0700 2007 6397520 121105 1350516 186105159X 9781861051592 0 <![CDATA[Lord High Executioner: Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen and Their Kind]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536m/1350516.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1182921536s/1350516.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1350516.Lord_High_Executioner_Unashamed_Look_at_Hangmen_Headsmen_and_Their_Kind 4.10 10 1996 4 0 false Tue Sep 18 14:01:22 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 19 13:42:16 -0700 2007 8 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1350516