How the Hangman Lost His Heart

December 1, 2007
Gr 5-8-A novel set in England in 1746. While staying with her grandmother, Alice attends the hanging of her favorite uncle for treason. When his head is placed on a pike above London's Temple Bar, she is determined to retrieve it in order to bury it with his body. Treacherous climbs, horse chases, a stay in a dank prison, and other misadventures follow Alice and the head as they try to make their way home to her parents 250 miles away. Dan Skinslicer, the hangman, is inadvertently caught up in the action along with Captain Hew Ffrench, and both fall in love with Alice. Accused of being traitors against King George, all three are pursued throughout the countryside by the malevolent Major Slavering, who greatly anticipates their punishment. The story is filled with action and interesting characters. Alice's bumbling grandmother and aunt provide comic relief, and everything is tidied up by the end. This is a rousing read, with historical overtones referencing the ongoing battle between Protestants and Catholics."Corinda J. Humphrey, Los Angeles Public Library"

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2007
The trouble with Uncle Frank is his head. Its been severed from his body, and his niece, Alice, is carrying it around in a hatbox! Now theres a reader-grabbing premise. Grant, the author of the popular De Granville trilogy, sets her merry historical farce in the eighteenth century when King George II was on the throne. Uncle Frank, a supporter of the kings rival, Bonnie Prince Charlie, has been executed as a traitor, and poor Alice, accompanied by her stalwart friend, hangman Dan Skinslicer, is trying to get home to bury her uncles remains. Complications ensue, not the least of which is Alices falling in love with Dragoons Captain Hew Ffrench (yes, with two fs). The plot is as full of holes as a beggars socks, but the characters are agreeable, the situations are often quite funny, and there are flashes of some really fine writing. Readers wont lose their heads over this one, but theyll certainly enjoy the action-filled adventure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2008
In 1746, Alice's uncle, a Stuart sympathizer, is executed, his head displayed as a warning to traitors. Alice effects a rescue of the head and becomes a fugitive, accompanied by sympathetic hangman Dan Skinslicer. Their madcap escapades (disembodied head in tow) boast nary a pause. A smart, breezy caper, liberally flavored with gallows humor, grandly theatrical in gesture and tone.

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from January 1, 2008
Grant's (the de Granville trilogy) purely escapist romp merges period romantic conventions with distinctly gruesome particulars. In the aftermath of the 1746 battle at Culloden, Alice's uncle Frank, a Stuart sympathizer, is hanged, drawn, and quartered, his head displayed as a warning to traitors. Unable to swallow this final indignity, Alice effects a rooftop rescue and becomes a fugitive before she even reaches the ground, accompanied by the unlikely hero Dan Skinslicer: sympathetic hangman, pragmatic commoner, and an effective foil to Alice's earnest but prissy upper-class sensibilities. Their madcap escapades through the streets and suburbs of London, disembodied (and oddly expressive) head in tow, boast nary a pause from beginning to end. And despite the book's slightness of plot and history, the characterizations are both pointed and subtle: Alice, Dan, and numerous quirky secondary personalities are products of their time (though often caricatured for effect), uncompromising in their differences, and refreshingly individual. A smart, breezy caper, liberally flavored with gallows humor, grandly theatrical in gesture and tone.

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)